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WHITE  SUPREMACY 


NEGRO  SUBORDINATION* 


OE, 


NEGROES  A  SUBORDINATE  RACE, 

AND  (SO-CALLED) 

SLAVERY  ITS  FORMAL  CONDITION 


WITH  AN  APPENDIX,  SHOWING  THE  PAST  AND  PRESENT 
CONDITION  OF  THE  COUNTRIES  SOUTH  OF  US. 


By  J.  H.  VAN  EVRIE,  M.  D. 

SECOND    EDITION. 


NEW  YORK: 
VAN    EVRIE,    HORTON    &    CO., 

No.    162   NASSAU   STREET, 

PRINTING   HOUSE  SQUABE. 

1868. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1BST,  By 

JOHN    H.    VAN    E  VRIE, 

U.  tilt  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  far  tkf 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


stbbeotypkd  by 
Smith   &  MoDouoal, 

82  &  84  Beekmau  st. 


2>£i*' .1 


ff 


PREFACE. 


:  This  work,  the  result  of  many  years  of  patient 
"■  study  and  investigation  of  the  normal  order  of 
.  American  society,  was  published  about  the  time  of 
;  Mr.  Lincoln's  election ;    but  the  war  that  followed 

rr  that  great  calamity  prevented  any  serious  efforts 
being  made  to  give  it  a  general  circulation.  It 
is  a  plain,  simple,  and  truthful  exposition  of  the 
natural  order  and  social  adaptation  of  the  white  and 
negro  races,  as  they  existed  in  the  Southern  States, 

-  and  indeed  in  all  the  States,  save  one,  when  the 
Union  was  formed.     It  shows  just  what  the  census 

6  returns  show,  that  negroes  having  multiplied  from 
a  half  to  four  millions  in  less  than  a  century,  were 
of  necessity  in  their  normal  condition  in  the  South  ; 
and  it  also  shows,  what  the  census  returns  show, 
that  in  "  freedom"  they  died  out,  and  therefore,  of 

g     necessity,  were   in   an   abnormal   condition   in   the 

^  North. r  Furthermore,  it  shows  that  amalgamation,  as 
with  varieties  of  our  own  race  that  come  to  us  from 
the  Old  World,  is  impossible  ;  and  therefor  3,  human 

128476 


VI  PEEFACE. 

I- 

governments  can  not  exist  an  hour  anywhere  where 
these  widely  different  races  are  forced  into  legal 
equality  in  approximate  proportions.  Finally,  it 
shows  that  even  when  both  white  and  negro 
become  so  debauched,  degraded,  and  sinful  as  to 
equalize  and  harmonize  together,  as  we  see  with 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards  on  this  Continent,  and 
sometimes  with  individuals  among  ourselves,  who 
mate  and  mix  their  blood,  their  progeny  become 
sterile,  diseased,  rotten,  and  within  a  certain  time, 
utterly  perish  from  the  earth.)  (Nevertheless,  the 
Northern  States  combined  together  in  1860,  and  took 
possession  of  the  common  government,  to  force  the 
Southern  States  to  practice  their  theories  or  "  ideas" 
on  this  subject,  or,  in  other  words,  to  doom  the 
Southern  people  to  a  fate  more  horrible  than  death 
itself !  They  now  rule  the  South  by  military  force, 
and  by  the  same  force  have  torn  four  millions  of  ne- 
groes from  their  normal  condition,  and  are  striving  to 
"  reconstruct"  American  society  on  a  Mongrel  basis, 
as  in  Mexico,  Central  America,  etc.  Or,  in  other 
words,  the  Northern  States  have  overthrown  society 
in  the  South,  and  the  simple  problem  before  this 
generation  is  the  mode  of  social  restoration — will  it 
be  done  through  the  common  sense  and  reason  of  the 
people,  or  through  civil  war,  national  bankruptcy, 
years    ol    anarchy,  and   universal   misery  ?      This 


FBEFACE,  Vli 


is  the  question,  the  whole  question  of  the  fu- 
ture. We  will  return  to  the  Constitution  and  the  \ 
"  Union  as  it  was  ;"  and  every  man,  and  woman 
too,  in  this  broad  land  must  accept  the  simple  but 
stupendous  truth  of  white  supremacy  and  negro  / 
subordination,  or  consent  to  have  it  forced  on  them 
by  years  of  social  anarchy,  horror,  and  misery  I 
The  author  has  also  added  an  appendix  to  the  work 
proper,  showing  the  past  and  present  condition  of  the 
Mongrel  populations  south  of  us,  and  presenting  in 
detail  the  practical  result  of  those  impious  and  mon- 
strous theories  now  in  the  full  tide  of  experiment 
among  ourselves.  In  conclusion  the  author  has  to  say 
that  he  has  given  his  life — more  than  life — to  this 
work,  to  the  explanation  and  demonstration  of  the 
grand  and  beneficent  truth  underlying  our  whole 
social  fabric ;  and  however  blind,  mad,  or  perverse 
this  generation  may  be,  he  is  content  with  the  assur- 
ance that  the  countless  millions  to  come  after  us  on 
this  Continent  will  be  benefited  by  his  labors. 

J.  H.  VAN  EVME. 

New  York,  1867. 


Extract  from  a  letter  to  the  Author  from  the  late  Dr. 
Cartwright  of  New  Orleans. 

"  The  defence  of  Negro  slavery  has  ever  been  on  some  untenable  basis, 
by  every  writer  and  speaker  who  has  attempted  to  advocate  it ;  most  of 
whom  have  done  more  harm  than  good  to  the  cause.  Some  few,  as  Calhoun 
and  others,  based  their  arguments  on  solid  materials,  but  they  did  not  collect 
enough  to  form  a  firm  foundation  for  the  whole  superstructure  of  our  South- 
ern Institutions.  In  theory,  at  least,  there  was  some  discrepancy;  and 
persons  abroad  could  not  understand  the  reason  for  the  facts,  and  therefore 
discredited  them,  just  as  Herodotus  did  the  story  of  the  sailors,  who  coasted 
along  Africa  until  their  shadows  at  noon  pointed  to  the  South,  instead  of 
the  North.  For  nearly  two  thousand  years  the  facts  reported  by  the  sailors 
were  disbelieved,  just  as  all  the  material  facts  in  regard  to  Negro  slavery, 
that  it  is  no  slavery,  but  a  natural  relation  of  the  races,  are  at  the  present 
day  disbelieved  by  all  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  Negro  nature 
by  actual  observation.  The  disbelief,  in  both  cases,  was  for  the  want  of  a 
theory,  a  correct  theory,  to  show  the  reasonableness,  or  rather  the  necessity 
of  the  phenomena.  What  the  theory,  based  upon  subsequent  discoveries  in 
geography  and  astronomy,  has  done  to  legitimate  the  facts  of  the  ancient 
sailors,  who  told  that  they  had  visited  a  country  so  far  South  that  their 
shadows  pointed  to  the  contrary  way  from  shadows  in  the  North,  your 
Work  has  done  for  all  those  seemingly  contradictory  and  incomprehen- 
sible facts  in  regard  to  Negroes  and  Negro  slavery.  It  not  only  proves 
their  truth  beyond  a  doubt,  but  proves  that  they  could  not  be  otherwise , 
that  they  are  true  from  necessity,  as  clearly  as  we  now  know  it  must  from 
necessity  be  true,  that  the  shadows  beyond  the  equator  point  South  at 
noon-day." 


TO   THE   READER. 


This  work,  if  carefully  and  generally  read,  will  dispel  that 
Abolition  delusion  which  plunged  us  into  Civil  War,  whereby 
nearly  a  million  of  lives  have  been  sacrificed,  the  prosperity 
of  our  country  destroyed,  and  enmity  and  ill-will  engendered 
between  two  sections  of  our  common  country,  which  formerly 
had  been,  and  always  should  be,  cemented  together  in  true 
brotherly  love.  ^ 

It  presents  in  language  that  can  be  easily  understood,  oven  \ 
by  the  commonest  reader,  the  true  relation  of  the  races  to    \ 
each  other,  proving  even  beyond  question  or  cavil,  that  when 
the  two  races  are  in  juxtaposition,  the  negro  should  hold  an    / 
inferior  or  subordinate  position  to  the  white  race,  and  that 
in  such  condition  only  can  the  negro  race  be  prosperous  and, 
happy.  J 

It  will  show  beyond  doubt  that  the  so-called  slavery  of  the 
South  was  the  negro's  normal  or  natural  condition. 

It  will  show  that  the  normal  or  natural  condition  of  all 
living  beings  is  the  only  condition  in  which  they  can  enjoy 
freedom,  for  the  reason  that  if  you  attempt  to  make  an  ani- 
mal or  person  act  contrary  to  its  nature,  you  thereby  make 
it  a  slave,  and,  as  the  census  shows,  destroy  its  life. 

It  will  show  you  that  there  are  six  distinct  races  of  Men, 
five  of  which  are  below  the  White  or  Caucasian  Race  in  the 
scale  of  the  human  creation,  and  that  the  negro  is  the  lowest 
of  all,  and  inferior  to  all. 

It  will  prove  to  you  that  the  four  millions  of  negroes  in 
their  so-called  slavery  in  the  South  were  happier  and  more 
improved,  intellectually,  than  the  same  number  of  the  same 
class  in  any  other  portion  of  the  world. 

It  will  prove  to  you  that  there  can  not  be  political  equality 
in  the  country  without  social  equality.  That  social  and  poli- 
tical equality,  as  in  Mexico  and  other  South  American  States, 


TO    THE    BEADEB. 

results  in  a  mixture  of  blood,  destruction  of  all  good  society, 
and  utter  impossibility  of  all  stable  government,  and  finally 
the  extinction  of  both  races. 

It  will  show  you  that  in  every  country  in  which  the  negro 
has  been  left  in  his  normal  condition — that  is,  in  subordina- 
tion to  the  white  race — that  such  country  has  advanced  in 
wealth  and  prosperity  ;  while  in  every  single  instance  in 
which  the  true  relation  of  the  races  to  each  other  has  been 
interfered  with,  and  the  negro  forced  into  political  and  social 
equality  with  the  whites,  such  nation  has  lost  her  power,  her 
commerce  and  prosperity.  For  examples,  I  refer  you  to 
Mexico,  the  South  American  States,  and  West  India  Islands. 

It  will  show  you  that  an  Abolitionist  and  Mongrelite  is  not 
only  an  enemy  to  his  own  race,  that  he  is  also  an  enemy  to 
the  black  man  ;  an  enemy  to  all  stable  society ;  an  enemy  to 
true  liberty  ;  and,  above  all,  an  enemy  to  his  God,  in  that  he 
has  interfered  with  the  designs  and  intentions  of  Providence, 
and  should,  therefore,  be  shunned  and  despised  by  every 
honest  man. 

It  will  show  and  prove  to  you  that  a  negro  always  was 
and  always  will  remain  a  negro,  no  difference  where  or  in 
what  part  of  God's  creation  he  may  reside  ;  that  the  intense 
cold  of  the  poles  can  not  freeze  him  white  ;  the  mild  and 
pleasant  breezes  of  the  temperate  zone  can  not  unkink  his 
hair  ;  nor  will  the  burning  and  scorching  suns  of  the  tropics 
flatten  his  head.  In  short,  even  his  sleeping  and  eating  for  a 
lifetime  with  Ben.  Butler,  or  Wendell  Phillips,  or  Thad. 
Stevens,  or,  in  fact,  the  whole  gang  of  Abolition  mongrels 
and  traitors  who  now  darken  and  disgrace  the  Capitol  of  our 
country  with  their  presence,  would  not  change  a  single  iota 
of  his  physiognomy  from  what  it  was  six  thousand  years  ago. 

It  will  teach  you,  finally,  how  you  should  act  and  vote  in 
the  great  Presidential  contest  now  inaugurated,  and  to  be 
decided  next  November,  between  niggers  and  mongrel- 
traitors  on  one  side,  and  the  constitutional,  liberty-loving, 
and  God-fearing  Democracy  on  the  other. 


CONTENTS, 


PART    I. 

CHAPTER   I. 

CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

European  Misconception  of  the  Negro — Monarchical  Hostility  to  Amer- 
ican Institutions — Imposture  or  Delusion  of  Wilberforce — False  Issue 
of  a  Single  Human  Race — Dictation  of  European  Writers — Subservi- 
ency of  the  American  Mind 17 

CHAPTER   II. 

LAWS    OF    ORGANIZATION'. 

Divisions  of  the  Organic  "World — Each  Form  of  Being  an  Independent 
Creation — Harmony  in  the  Economy  of  Animal  Life — The  Races  speci- 
fically different  from  each  other — A  Single  Species  Impossible — Fal- 
lacies of  Linneeus  and  other  European  Naturalists — Ignorance  of 
Educated  Men  on  this  Subject 34 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    HUMAN    CREATION. 

Subdivisions  of  Mankind — The  Different  Races  of  Men — Characteristics 
ot  each — The  Caucasian — The  Mongolian — The  Malay — The  Aborigi- 
nal American — Caucasian  Remains  in  Mexico — The  Esquimaux — The 
Negro  Race;  its  Origin;  Observations  of  Livingston,  Barth,  and  others 


X 


Z  CONTENTS. 

Paga 

— Hybrids  confounded  with  the  Typical_Negro — The  Dogma  of  a  Single 
Race — Mankind  Created  in  Groups — The  Bible  Aspect  of  the  Question 
— Inconsistency  of  the  Advocates  of  the  Single  Race  Theory 44 

CHAPTER    IV. 

HISTORICAL    OUTLINE. 

Origin  of  the  Caucasian  Race— Bible  Accounts — Invasion  of  Egypt  by 
the  Master  Race — The  Caucasians  in  Assyria,  Persia,  and  Babylon — 
Origin  of  the  Mongolians — The  Use  of  the  Term  "  Barbarian" — The 
History  of  the  Greeks — Not  the  Authors  of  Political  Liberty — Athena 
not  a  Democracy — The  Roman  Republic  and  Empire — Citizenship  a 
Privilege,  not  a  Right — The  Advent  of  Christianity  the  Advent  of  De- 
mocracy— The  Dark  Ages — The  Races  that  Figured  in  that  Era — The 
Crusades — The  Asiatic  Invasion — The  Carthaginians — The  Arabs — 
The  Downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire — The  Reformation — All  the  Nu- 
merous Varieties  of  the  White  Race  Subsiding  into  Three  Well-known 
Families,  the  Celtic,  the  Teutonic  and  Sclavonic — General  Review — 
The  Intellectual  Powers  of  the  White  Race  the  same  in  all  Ages — 
Knowledge  only  Progressive — The  Inferior  Races  Incapable  of  Acquir- 
ing and  Transmitting  Knowledge — The  Cliinese  no  Exception 63 

CHAPTER   V 

COLOR. 

The  Cause  of  Color  Unknown — The  Caucasian  Color  the  Index  of  the 
Character ;  the  Contrary  the  Case  with  the  Negro  Race — The  Black 
Complexion  a  Sign  of  Inferiority— Misuse  of  the  term  "  Colored 
Man" 88 

CHAPTER    VI. 


'Differences  in  Form — The  Negro  Incapable  of  Standing  Upright — Other 
"Marks  of  Inferiority — The  Relative  Approximation  of  the  Ourang- 
Outang  to  the  Negro  and  the  Caucasian '. 92 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    HAIR. 
•  The  Hair  of  the  Caucasian  and  Negro  Contrasted — The  Beard  of  the 
Caucasian  indicative  of  Superiority — The  Negro  and  other  Races  have 
not  tho  Flowing  Beard  of  the  Caucasian. _    98 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  FEATURES. 

Pag« 
The  Features  the  True  Keflex  of  the  Inner  Nature — Variations  of  Size, 
Outlines,  Complexion,  etc.,  of  the  Caucasian  Race — ResernV  lance  of 
Negroes  to  each  other  in  Size  and  Appearance — Inability  of  the  Negro 
Features  to  express  the  Emotional  Feelings  peculiar  to  the  Caucasian, 
eta,  etc ,  105 

CHAPTER  IX. 

LANGUAGE. 

Divided  into  two  Portions— First  Capacity  of  Expression — Second  Ar- 
rangement into  Parts  of  Speech — All  Beings  have  a  Language,  each 
Specific  and  in  Accordance  with  its  Organism — The  Vocal  Organs  of 
the  Negro — No  Negro  can  Speak  the  Language  of  the  "White  Man 
Correctly — Negroes  can  be  Distinguished  by- their  Voices — A  Negro 
Musical  Artist  Unknown — Musical  Genius  Requires  a  Brain  of  Cor- 
responding Complexity — The  Negro's  Love  of  Music  merely  Sensuous, 
and  Manifested  by  the  Feet  as  much  as  by  the  Brain 109 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE    SENSES. 

Organism  of  the  Senses — Their  Strength  and  Acuteness  in  Inferior  Races 
— The  Cause  of  Negro  Indolence  Explained — The  Necessity  of  Govern- 
ing the  Negro — Incapacity  of  the  "  Free  Negro"  to  Produce  Sufficient 
for  his  own  Support — His  Ultimate  Extinction  Simply  a  Question  of 
Time — Incapacity  of  the  Negro  for  the  Higher  Branches  of  Mechanism 
—Effect  of  Flogging  on  the  Negro  Senses,  etc.,  etc 115 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE    BRAIN. 

Erroneous  Impressions  Relative  to  the  Brain — "What  Constitutes  the 
Brain — Its  Size  the  True  Test  of  Intelligence — General  Uniformity  of 
the  Negro  Brain — Its  Correspondence  with  the  Body — Its  Size,  when 
Compared  with  that  of  the  White  Man — The  Folly  and  Impiety  of  At- 
tempting to  Equalize  those  whom  Gr^  ^w  ^tfie  Unequal,  etc 125 


XU  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XII. 

GENERAL   SUMMARY. 

Pag* 
Recapitulation  and  Review  of  the  Outward  Characteristics  of  the  Negro 
— Color,  etc.,  seen  to  be  only  a  Single  .Fact  out  of  the  Millions  of  Pacts 
separating  Races — Inner  Qualities  necessarily  Correspondent  with  the 
Outward  ones — Conclusion 132 


J?  A  R  T     II. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

HYBRIDISM. 

The  Laws  of  Iuterunion  fully  Explained — A  fixed  and  well-defined 
Limit  to  Mulattoism — Prostitution  in  the  North,  and  Mulattoism  in  the 
South — Amalgamation  and  its  Consequences — The  Physiological  Laws 
governing  Mulattoism  and  Mongrelism — Condition  of  the  Negro  in 
Jamaica,  Hayti,  etc. — The  Negro,  when  Isolated,  certain  to  Relapse 
into  his  Original  Barbarism — Intellectual  Difference  between  Negroes 
and  Mulattoes — The  Viciousness  and  Cowardice  of  the  Mongrel — His 
Low  Grade  of  Vitality,  etc.,  etc 143 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    "  SLAVE    TRADE,"    OR   THE    IMPORTATION    OF    NEGROES. 

General  Review  of  the  Subject — The  Absurdity  of  Attempting  to  Civilize 
Africa — The  Adaptability  of  the  Negro  to  Tropical  Labor — Las  Casas 
and  the  Negroes  and  Indians — How  the  Spanish  Government  con- 
ducted "  the  Slave  Trade" — Its  Inhumanity,  as  practiced  by  the 
Dutch  and  English — The  Benefits  of  the  Original  "  Slave  Trade" — The 
Reason  why  England  is  so  Anxious  to  Abolish  "  Slavery,"  etc.,  etc...  168 

CHAPTER   XV. 

NORMAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

The  Law  of  Adaptation — The  Natural  Relation  of  Men  to  Animals,  of 
Parents  to  Offspring,  of  Men  of  the  Same  Species  to  Each  Other — 


CONTENTS.  X1U 

Page 
American  Institutions  based  on  the  Natural  Relations,  or  the  Natural 
Equality  of  the  Race — Political  Equality  the  Normal  Order  of  the 
"White  Man — Disregard  of  the  Natural  Relations  in  Europe — Repres- 
sion of  the  Natural  Order— Result  of  the  Employment  of  Force  to  Pre- 
serve the  Existing  Condition — Popular  Ignorance  of  the  Relations  of 
Races— Juxtaposition  of  White  Men  and  Negroes — Natural  Inferiority 
and  Social  Subordination  of  the  latter— The  Natural,  or  Uneducated 
Negro  of  Africa,  compared  with  the  Civilized  Negro  of  America — 
Free  Negroism  a  Social  Disease — Social  Subordination,  with  the  Pro- 
tection of  the  White  Man,  the  Normal  Condition  of  the  Negro 179 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CHATTELISM. 

Historic  Slavery — Its  Origin — Its  Character — All  "White  People — Often 
Highly  Educated  Men— Their  Abject  Dependence  on  the  Will  or  Cap- 
rice of  the  Owner— Their  Incapacity  to  Propagate  Themselves — Their 
Restoration  to  Citizenship,  etc. — Nothing  whatever  in  Common  with 
the  Social  Subordination  of  Negroes  in  our  Time— The  Industrial  Ca- 
pacity of  the  Negro  all  that  the  Master  owns — Care  and  Kindness  of 
the  Master — Rapid  Increase  of  the  Negro  Population  when  in  their 
Normal  Condition,  etc 204 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

EDUCATION    OF    NEGROES. 

The  Education  of  the  Negro  should  be  in  Harmony  with  his  Wants  and 
Mental  Capacity — The  Folly  of  Attempting  to  Educate  the  Negro  as 
wo  do  the  Caucasian— The  Negro  always  a  Child  in  Intellect— The 
Duty  of  the  Master  to  set  his  "  Slave"  a  Good  Example — The  Imitative 
Faculty  of  the  Negro  mistaken  for  Intelligence,  etc 216 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    DOMESTIC    AFFECTIONS. 

Love  of  the  Caucasian  Mother  for  her  Offspring — Relative  Capacity  of 
White  and  Black  Children — The  Negress,  after  a  certain  period,  loses 
all  Love  for,  or  Interest  in,  her  Offspring — Affection  for  his  Master  the 
Strongest  Feeling  of  which  the  Negro  is  capable,  etc.,  etc 223 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

MARRIAGE. 

Paga 
The  Idea  that  Marriage  does  not  Exist  among  "  Slaves"  Repugnant  to 
the  Northern  Mind — Its  Effect  on  Increasing  the  Anti-Slavery  De- 
-usion — New  England  Women — Their  Domestic  Education  Admirable 
—Their  Mistake  as  to  the  Facts  of  Marriage  at  the  South — Their 
Southern  Sisters — "What  is  Marriage  ? — Not  Simply  a  Civil  Contract — 
A  Natural  Relation — The  Love  of  Negroes  Impulsive  and  Capricious.  223 


CHAPTER    XX. 

CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

How  the  Earth  is  Divided — Its  Fauna  and  Flora — All  Organized  Beings 
have  their  Centres  of  Existence  peculiar  to  Themselves — No  such 
thing  as  the  Creation  of  the  same  Species  in  Different  Centres  of 
Life — The  more  elevated  the  Organism,  the  less  subject  to  Exter- 
nal Circumstances — Incapacity  of  the  Negro  to  Live  in  Northern 
Latitudes — Their  Miserable  Condition  and  Rapid  Extinction  in  Can- 
ada— Industrial  Adaptation  of  the  Caucasian  to  Intemperate  Latitudes 
— Why  white  Labor  is  worth  more  than  that  of  the  Negro  at  the 
North — Industrial  Adaptation  of  the  Negro  to  Tropical  and  Tropicoid 
Products — Absurdity  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787 — The  Acquisition  of 
Southern  Territory  always  saves  the  North  from  so-called  Negro 
Slavery — "  Extension  of  Slavery"  vital  to  both  White  and  Black — 
Absolute  Necessity  of  Negro  Labor  in  the  Tropics — Production,  and 
therefore  Civilization,  otherwise  Impossible 245 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

NORTH  AND    SOUTH — THE    ORIGIN    OF   THE  AMERICAN    IDEA    OF 
GOVERNMENT. 

The  Progenitors  of  our  so-called  Slaves,  though  mainly  Imported  at  the 
North,  ultimately  found  their  way  South — Difference  between  the 
Early  Colonists  of  both  Sections  of  the  Country — Virginia  Mainly 
Settled  by  the  Cavaliers — The  Southern  Leaders  the  Originators  and 
Upholders  of  our  Present  System  of  Government — The  Presence  of 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Page 
the  Negro,  m  hia  Natural  Condition,  conducive  to  the  Equality  of 
White  Men — The  Harmony  of  Southern  Society — The  Interests  of 
"  Slaveholder"  and  "Non-Slaveholder,"  and  of  Master  and  "Slave" 
are  Indivisible — The  Presence  of  the  Negro  in  his  Normal  Condition 
tho  Happiest  Event  in  Human  Affairs,  etc 27* 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE    ALLIANCE    OF   NORTHERN    AND    SOUTHERN    PRODUCERS. 

The  Antagonism  of  Ideas  after  the  Constitution  was  formed — The  Two 
Opposing  Leaders,  Hamilton  and  Jefferson,  in  Washington's  Cabinet — 
Hamilton's  Financial  Policy  Wrong — The  British  System — The  Alien 
and  Sedition  Laws — British  "Liberty" — Conflict  of  Labor  and  Capital 
— The  Producing  Classes  at  the  North  without  Leaders — The  Wealtb 
and  Power  in  the  hands  of  the  Federalists — At  the  South  the  Slave- 
holders were  Producers — Mr.  Jefferson's  Declaration  that  they  were 
the  Allies  of  the  Northern  Laborers  True — The  Kentucky  and  Vir- 
ginia Resolutions  of  1798  the  True  Exposition  of  our  Federal  System 
—Civil  Revolution  of  1800 203 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

The  Number  of  Negroes  on  this  Continent — The  "  Free"  Negro — Im- 
passibility of  his  Living  out  the  Life  of  the  White  Man — The  "Free" 
Negroes  of  Virginia  and  Maryland — The  Drawback  of  the  "  Free" 
Negro  Population — Its  Dangerous  Elements — Its  Immoral  Charac- 
ter— Its  Tax  on  the  Laboring  Classes — Its  Ultimate  Extinction — 
Slavery  in  Brazil  and  Cuba — The  White  Man  Degraded  there — Social 
Danger — Tropical  Civilization — Intellect  of  the  White  Man,  and  the 
Labor  of  the  Negro  Essential  to  it — The  Condition  of  Jamaica — 
White  Blood  being  Extinguished — The  Tendency  of  the  British 
System  to  Force  Negroes  to  a  Forbidden  Level  with  White  Men — 
Negro  Officials — Knighting  a  Negro — The  Effect  of  Legal  and  Social 
Equality — The  Extinction  of  the  White  Race  in  the  West  Indies  only 
a  Question  of  Time — The  Negro  Returning  to  Savageism — Hayti — 
Terrible  Results  of  the  British  Anti-Slavery  Policy — An  African 
Heathenism  in  America 509 


XVI  CO  NTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

Pag« 

Review  of  the  Subject — Juxtaposition  with  the  Subordinate  Race  has 
Originated  New  Ideas  in  the  Master  Race,  and  Rendered  Republican 
Liberty  Practicable — Beneficent  Union  of  Capital  and  Labor  in  the 
South — A  Southern  Majority  and  Northern  Minority  have  Acquired 
all  the  Territory,  Fought  all  the  Battles,  and  Conducted  the  Nation 
in  every  Step  of  its  Growth,  since  its  Foundation  to  the  Present 
Time — The  Acquisition  of  the  Gulf  States  has  Secured  Equal  Rights 
to  the  Masses  at  the  North — Final  Acquisition  of  Cuba,  Central 
America,  etc.,  Essential  to  the  National  Development — Extension  of 
so-called  Slavery  a  Vital  Law  of  National  Existence,  and  Absolutely 
Essential  to  American  Civilization . 336 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  Indian  or  Aboriginal  Races  of  America 1 

CHAPTER    II. 

Spanish  Conquest  and  Policy 12 

CHAPTER    III. 
The  Mongrel  Republics 34 

CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Islands,  Past  and  Present 45 

CHAPTER    V. 
Conclusion 6? 


11% 


CAUCASIAN 


CHAPTER  I. 

CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

"  American  slavery,"  though  having  no  existence  in  fact, 
is  a  phrase  which,  for  the  last  forty  years,  has  been  oftener 
heard  than  American  democracy  ;  yet  the  latter  is  one  of 
the  great  powers  of  the  earth,  and  destined,  in  the  course 
of  time,  to  revolutionize  the  world.  But  in  this  promin- 
ence of  an  abstraction,  and  indifference,  or  apparent  indiffer- 
ence, to  the  grandest  fact  of  modern  times,  is  witnessed  the 
wide-spread  and  almost  despotic  influence  of  the  European 
over  the  American  mind.  What  is  here  tei-rned  "  American 
slavery,"  is  the  status  of  the  negro  in  American  society — the 
social  relation  of  the  negro  to  the  white  man — which,  being  in 
accord  with  the  natural  relations  of  the  races,  springs  spon- 
taneously from  the  necessities  of  human  society.  The  white 
citizen  is  superior,  the  negro  inferior;  and,  therefore,  when- 
ever or  wherever  they  happen  to  be  in  juxtaposition,  the 
human  law  should  accord,  as  it  does  accord  in  the  South,  with 
these  relations  thus  inherent  in  their  organizations,  and  thus 
fixed  forever  by  the  hand  of  God.  And  were  America  isolated 
from  Europe — did  that  sea  of  fire,  which  Mr.  Jefferson  once 
wished  for,  really  divide  the  Old  World  and  the  New,  and 
thus  separate  us  from  the  mental  obliquities  and  moral  per- 
versities of  the  former — then  any  other  relation  than  that  now 
common  to  the  South,  would  be  an  impossible  conception  to 
the  American  mind. 

The  words  "slave"  and  "slavery"  were  scarcely  heard  a 
hundred  years  ago,  as  indeed  they  will  be  unheard  a  hm> 


18       CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

dred  years  hence;  and  prior  to  the  Revolution  of  1*776,  the 
people  of  America  were  quite  unconscious  of  that  mighty 
"  evil,"  now  so  oppressive  to  many  otherwise  sensible  minds, 
though  this  imaginary  slavery  then  spread  over  the  whole 
continent.  All  new  communities  are  distinguished  by  a  cer- 
tain advance  in  civilization  over  the  elder  ones,  however  rude 
the  former  may  appear  in  some  respects,  or  whatever  may  be 
the  over-refinement,  or  seeming  refinement,  of  the  latter. 
Truth  fives  forever — "the  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers;" 
and  all  real  knowledge,  all  true  progress  made  by  the  race,  is 
treasured  up,  and  carried  with  it  in  all  its  wanderings,  whether 
from  the  Nile  to  the  Tiber,  or  from  the  Thames  to  the  Hudson ; 
while  the  errors,  the  foolish  traditions  and  vicious  habits,  men- 
tal and  moral,  that  gather  about  it,  and  weaken,  and  sometimes 
so  overlie  and  conceal  the  truth  as  to  render  it  useless,  are  left 
behind.  "We  see  this  even  in  our  own  energetic  and  progres- 
sive society.  The  younger  States  are  the  most  enlightened 
States ;  and  the  West,  whatever  may  be  its  wants,  or  supposed 
wants  among  a  certain  class,  is  really  more  civilized  than  the 
East.  That  community  which  is  the  most  prosperous — where 
there  is  the  greatest  amount  of  happiness — where  there  is 
relatively  the  greatest  number  of  independent  citizens — is 
per  se  and  of  necessity  the  most  civilized;  for  the  end  of 
existence,  the  object  of  the  All-wise  and  beneficent  Creator 
— happiness  for  His  creatures — is  here  most  fully  accom- 
plished. 

And  when  we  contemplate  the  history  of  this  continent, 
and  compare  the  character  of  the  early  colonists,  their  history, 
and  their  influence  over  the  present  condition  of  things,  it 
will  be  found  that  they  remained  stationary  in  exact  propor- 
tion as  they  clung  to  the  ideas  and  habitudes  of  the  Old 
World ;  or  advanced  towards  a  better  and  higher  condition 
just  as  they  cast  off  these  influences,  and  lived  in  natural 


CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION.       19 

accord  with  the  circumstances  that  surrounded  them.  The 
Spanish  conquerors  were  often  the  pets  and  favorites  of  the 
court,  and  always  the  ftiithful  sons  of  the  Church,  and  brought 
with  them  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  the  former,  and  the  rigid 
ecclesiastical  observances  of  the  latter.  When  Ccrtez  and 
Pizzaro  took  possession  of  a  province,  they  pompously  paraded 
the  titles  and  dignities  of  the  emperor  before  the  wondering 
savages,  and  added  vast  multitudes  of  "  Christian  converts" 
to  "  Holy  Church"  with  a  zeal  and  fervor  that  the  Beechers 
and  Cheevers  of  our  times  might  envy,  but  surely  could  not 
equal.  The  English  colonists,  on  the  contrary,  were  almost 
all  disaffected,  or  at  all  events,  were  charged  with  disaffection 
to  the  mother  country.  This,  it  is  true,  was  masked  under 
religious  beliefs  and  scruples  of  conscience,  but  was  none  the 
less  hostile  to  the  political  order  under  which  they  had  been 
persecuted  and  suffered  so  long.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  they 
found  themselves  in  a  New  World,  and  relieved  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Old,  they  abandoned,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
forms,  as  they  already  had  abandoned  many  of  the  ideas,  of 
the  latter.  They  recognized  the  nominal  sovereignty  of  the 
mother  country,  or  rather  of  the  Crown ;  but  from  the  landing 
at  Jamestown,  as  well  as  at  Plymouth,  all  the  British  colonists 
really  governed  themselves,  made  their  own  laws,  provided 
for  their  own  safety,  and,  except  the  governor,  and  occasion- 
ally some  subordinate  officials,  elected  their  own  rulers.  The 
result  was  a  corresponding  prosperity ;  for  not  only  did  the 
discipline  of  self-reliance  strengthen  the  character,  and  call  out 
a  higher  phase  of  citizenship  among  the  English  colonists,  but 
n  casting  off  the  habitudes  of  the  old  societies,  and  adopting 
those  that  were  suited  to  the  circumstances  surrounding  them, 
they  soon  exhibited  a  striking  contrast  to  those  of  Spain  and 
of  other  European  powers,  who  clung  to  the  ideas  and  habits 
of  Europe. 


20       CAUSES  OP  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

But  this  drawback  on  American  progress — this  clinging  to 
the  habitudes  of  the  Old  World,  which  kept  the  Spanish  and 
French  colonies  in  abject  submission  to  the  mother  country, 
and  which  England,  at  a  later  period,  sought  to  force  on  her 
colonies — was  not  the  sole  embarrassment  in  the  progress  of 
the  colonists.  They  were  confronted  by  wild  and  ferocious 
savages,  who  disputed  every  step  of  the  white  European ;  and 
though,  previous  to  the  independence  of  the  colonies,  the 
mother  country  united  with  the  latter  against  the  former, 
from  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities  in  1776  to  the  close  of  the 
War  of  1812  the  interests  of  monarchy  and  savagism  may  be 
said  to  have  been  inseparable,  and  to  have  formed  a  common 
barrier  against  the  march  of  republicanism.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
truth,  attested  by  the  whole  history  of  the  past,  and  equally 
so  by  the  circumstances  of  the  present,  that  the  subordinate 
races  of  this  continent — the  Indian,  Negro,  Mongrel,  etc. — 
constitute  the  material,  the  very  stock  in  trade,  of  European 
monarchists,  to  embarrass  the  progress  of  American  institu- 
tions ;  and  in  every  instance  where  we  have  been  engaged  in 
Indian  wars,  that  portion  of  our  people  who,  in  their  ignorance 
and  blindness,  have  condemned  the  course  of  their  own  gov- 
ernment, have  been  the  unconscious  instruments  of  the  enemies 
of  their  country,  and  in  their  sickly  sentimentality  and  folly, 
they  have  sought  to  obstruct  the  progress  of  American  civiliza- 
tion. Monarchy  consists  in  artificial  distinctions  of  kings, 
nobles,  peasants,  etc.,  or  it  may  be  defined  as  the  ride  of 
classes  of  the  same  race,  and,  from  the  inherent  necessities  of 
its  organization,  it  is  forced  to  make  war  on  the  natural  dis- 
tinction of  races.  Prior  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  American 
Revolution,  there  was  no  necessity  for  calling  in  the  aid  of  the 
Negro  or  the  Indian  to  crush  out  the  liberty  of  the  white  man. 
The  colonists,  as  has  been  observed,  were  practical  republi- 
cans, and  substantially  governed  themselves;  but  they  had  not 


CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION.       21 

questioned  the  European  system  or  theory  of  monarchism. 
When  they  did  this,  however,  in  that  grand  Declaration  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  that  all  men  (meaning,  of  course,  his  own  race) 
were  created  free  and  equal,  the  British  monarchists  instinct- 
ively and,  indeed  necessarily,  resorted  to  the  means  at  hand — ■ 
to  the  subordinate  races  of  America — to  demoralize  and  break 
down  this  immortal  truth.  An  English  judge,  anticipating 
the  coming  rebellion  of  the  Americans,  had  already  ruled  that 
"  slavery,"  or  social  subordination  of  the  negro  to  the  white 
man,  was  a  result  of  municipal  law — a  creature  of  the  lex  loci; 
and  though  this  was  in  language  that  led  vast  numbers  of 
people  into  error,  its  technical  as  well  as  absolute  falsehood  is 
apparent,  when  we  remember  that  no  such  "  law"  has  ever 
existed,  either  now  or  at  any  other  time,  in  American  history, 
from  the  Canadian  Lakes  to  Cape  Horn.  But  it  served  as  a 
foundation  and  stand-point  for  that  wide-spread  imposture  and 
world-wide  delusion  which  has  since  so  overshadowed  the 
land,  and,  with  the  best  intentions  on  their  part,  so  deluded 
Americans  themselves  into  a  blind  warfare  against  the  prog- 
ress, prosperity,  and  indeed  the  civilization,  of  their  coun- 
try and  continent.  In  the  seven  years'  war  waged  to  crush 
out  the  rebellion  of  the  Colonies,  England  subsidized  the 
savage  Indian  tribes  wherever  it  was  possible  to  do  so ; 
and  in  the  subsequent  War  of  1812,  her  agents  partially  suc- 
ceeded in  combining  all  the  savages  on  our  western  border, 
under  Tecumseh,  with  the  design  of  shutting  us  out  forever 
from  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  result  of  this 
monstrous  alliance  of  European  monarchists  and  American 
savages  to  beat  back  the  advancing  civilization  of  the  New 
World,  to  hold  in  check,  and,  if  possible,  to  defeat  and  over 
throw  republicanism,  has  ended  in  the  destruction  and  almost 
utter  annihilation  of  the  North  American  Indians.  General 
Jackson's  campaigns  in  Florida,  as  well  as  those  of  Harrison 


22       CAUSES  OP  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

in  the  West,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  even  the  later  Seminole 
War,  all  had  their  origin  in  the  same  causes,  the  open  or 
secret  intrigues  of  British  agents,  stimulating  the  savages  to 
resist  the  onward  march  of  American  civilization.  Nor  was  it 
anything  like  the  former  contests  of  the  agents  of  England 
and  France  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the  savages  against  each 
other ;  for,  repulsive  and  iniquitous  as  it  may  be  for  men  of 
the  same  race  to  employ  subordinate  races  against  their  own 
blood,  they  were  struggling  for  possession  of  a  continent,  and 
all  means,  doubtless,  seemed  legitimate  that  should  give  them 
victory.  But  in  this  case  it  was  a  war  against  Americanism 
— against  a  new  order  of  political  society — against  a  system 
based  on  a  principle  of  utter  antagonism  to  monarchism,  and 
which  if  permitted  to  develop  its  legitimate  results,  to  grow 
into  a  new  and  grander  order  of  civilized  society  than  the 
world  had  ever  yet  witnessed,  the  rotten  and  worn-out  sys- 
tems of  Europe  were  doomed  to  certain  and  perhaps  early 
overthrow.  It  is  true,  the  agents  employed  did  not  know 
this — indeed,  their  European  masters  were  ignorant,  perhaps, 
of  the  principles  involved ;  but  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
the  instinct  inherent  in  hostile  systems  impelled  them  forward, 
while  the  ends  to  be  reached,  or  the  consequences  of  success, 
were  always  too  apparent  to  be  mistaken.  But  their  savage 
instruments  were  destroyed  in  the  conflict,  in  the  uses  to 
which  they  were  applied  by  their  European  allies  ;  and  what- 
ever may  be  the  future  fate  of  the  Aborigines  in  Spanish 
America,  the  North  American  Indian  is  virtually  annihilated. 
A  few  wild  tribes  of  the  West  and  South-west,  whose  means 
for  preserving  existence  are  every  day  growing  less,  still 
remain,  and  some  remnants  of  semi-civilized  tribes,  which  are 
^rishing  even  more  rapidly  than  the  former,  are  to  be  found 
&a  our  Western  frontier ;  but  the  time  is  not  distant,  perhaps, 
vvaen  they  will  be  wholly  and  absolutely  extinct. 


CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION.       23 

What  might  have  been,  it  is  useless  to  conjecture ;  but  the 
notion  of  a  certain  class  of  sentimentalists  among  us,  that  we 
have  done  the  Indian  great  wrong,  and  that,  had  we  treated 
him  with  kindness  and  justice,  he  might  have  become  civil- 
ized, and  a  part  of  our  permanent  population,  of  course,  is  ab- 
surd ;  for  it  is  founded  on  that  foolish  dogma  of  a  single  race 
which  Europe  has  fastened  on  the  American  mind,  and  which 
supposes  the  Indian,  as  the  Negro,  etc.,  to  have  the  same  na- 
ture as  themselves.  Nor  is  the  notion  of  others,  that  the 
Indian  is  incapable  of  civilization,  and  therefore  destined  to 
give  way  before  the  advance  of  the  white  man,  worthy  of  any 
consideration;  for  this  involves  the  paradox  of  being  created 
without  a  purpose,  a  supposition  not  to  be  entertained  a  mo- 
ment ;  for  the  most  insignificant  beings  in  the  lowest  forms  of 
organic  life  have  their  uses,  and  the  human  creature,  surely, 
was  not  created  in  vain.  The  simple  truth  is,  that  we  need  to 
know  what  the  Indian  is  in  fact,  his  true  nature  and  true  rela- 
tions to  our  own  race,  and  then,  as  we  have  done  in  the  case 
of  the  Negro,  adapt  the  social  and  governmental  machinery 
to  the  wants  of  both  races.  But  this  employment  and  con- 
sequent destruction  of  the  Indians  of  America  by  the  monarch- 
ists of  Europe,  though  often  inflicting  great  temporary  evil 
on  our  border  settlements,  did  not  retard  our  progress  in  the 
least,  nor  did  England,  to  any  appreciable  extent,  succeed  in 
her  objects.  The  theory  or  dogma  of  a  single  race,  which  her 
writers  and  publicists  had  set  up  about  the  time  of  the  Revo- 
lution, produced,  however,  immense  practical  results  both  in 
Europe  and  America.  The  doctrines  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, as  was  foreseen  by  British  statesmen,  soon  became  uni- 
versally accepted  in  France,  and  threatened  to  overturn  mon- 
archy all  over  the  Continent,  and  indeed  in  England  itself. 
Dr.  Johnson,  Wilberforce,  Pitt,  and  all  the  great  writers  and 
leaders  of  England,  naturally  enough  adopted  the  notion  that 


24       CAUSES  OP  POPULAB  DELUSION". 

Indians,  Negroes,  etc.,  were  men  like  themselves,  except  in  color, 
cultivation,  etc. ;  but  they  were  impelled,  by  the  necessities  of 
their  system  and  the  preservation  of  monarchical  institutions, 
to  practicalize  this  theory  to  the  utmost  extent  in  their  power, 
and  thus  divert  the  attention  of  their  own  oppressed  white 
people  from  their  wrongs,  by  holding  up  before  them  con- 
tinually the  imaginary  wrongs  of  "  American  slaves."     They 
said,  "  It  is  true,  you  laborers  of  Yorkshire  and  operatives  of 
Birmingham  have  a  hard  life,  a  life  of  constant  toil  and  priva- 
tion ;  but  you  are  free-born  Englishmen,  and  your  own  mas- 
ters, and  in  all  England  there  is  not  a  single  slave ;  while  in 
America,  in  that  so-called  land  of  freedom,  where  there  is  no 
king,  or  noble,  or  law  of  primogeniture,  and  where,  in  theory, 
it  is  declared  that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal,  one  sixth 
of  the  population  are  slaves,  so  abject  and  miserable  that  they 
are  sold  in  the  public  markets,  like  horses  and  oxen.     What, 
then,  are  your  oppressions  or  your  wrongs  in  comparison  with 
those  of  American  slaves  ?  or  what  are  the  evils  or  the  injus- 
tice of  monarchy  when  contrasted  with  those  dark  and  damn- 
ing crimes  of  American  democracy,  that  thus,  in  these  enlight- 
ened times,  dooms  one  sixth  of  the  population  to  open  and 
undisguised  slavery  ?"     Such  was  the  argument  of  the  British 
writers,  and  it  was  unanswerable  if  it  had  rested  on  fact — 
if  the  foundation  were  true,  then  the  inference,  of  course,  was 
unavoidable.     If  the  so-called  American  slave  was  created  free 
and  equal  with  his  master,  then  all  that  the  British  writers 
charged  would  have  been  true  enough,  and  American  slavery, 
in  comparison  with  British  liberty — or  what  passed  for  such 
in  Yorkshire  and  Birmingham — would  have  been  a  wrong,  so 
deep,  damning,  and  fathomless,  that  no  words  in  our  language 
would  be  able  to  express  its  enormity.     How  was  the  poor, 
ignorant,  and  helpless  laborer,  or  even  his  defenders,  Fox, 
Sheridan,  and  other  liberal  leaders  of  the  day,  to  answer  this 


CA.USBS     OF     POPULAR     DELUSION.  28 

argument?  They  did  not  attempt  it.  They  admitted  that 
"  American  slavery"  was  all  that  it  was  charged  to  be — that  it 
was  a  wrong  and  evil  immeasurably  greater  and  more  atro- 
cious than  any  of  those  which  the  people  of  France  had  risen 
against,  or  that  the  masses  in  England  suffered  under  ;  but 
they  hoped  that  the  great  principle  of  the  American  Revolution 
was  strong  enough  to  overcome  this  wrong,  and  in  the  pro- 
cess of  time,  to  "  abolish  slavery,"  and  that  liberty  would  be- 
come universal  among  Americans.  Indeed,  some  of  those  who 
had  been  the  most  devoted  believers  in  the  great  American  doc- 
trine, both  in  England  and  France,  were  so  painfully  impressed 
by  the  seeming  wrong  done  the  negro,  that  they  lost  their  in 
terest,  to  a  great  extent,  in  the  real  Avrongs  of  the  white  man, 
and  devoted  all  their  efforts  to  the  former.  Societies  were 
formed  in  London  and  Paris,  funds  contributed,  books  pub- 
lished, tracts  distributed,  and  extensive  arrangements  entered 
into,  with  the  sole  purpose  of  relieving  the  "  American  slave" 
from  the  fancied  wrongs  that  were  heaped  on  him ;  and  their 
societies,  these  "  Amis  des  N~oirs"  patronized  by  Robes- 
pierre and  other  leaders  of  the  people,  which  were  formed  in 
almost  every  town  in  France  and  England,  popularized  the 
movement,  and  so  identified  the  imaginary  cause  of  the  negro 
with  that  of  the  European  masses,  that  to  this  day  they  doubt- 
less seem  inseparable.  And  even  in  our  own  times,  we  have 
witnessed  the  sorry  spectacle  of  English  laborers  contributing 
of  their  wretched  pittance  to  glorify  some  abolition  hero  or 
heroine  of  the  "Uncle  Tom"  pattern,  under  the  deplorable 
misconception,  of  course,  that  these  blind  tools  of  the  enemies 
of  liberty  were  faithful  defenders  of  a  common  cause,  when,  in 
truth,  they  were  vastly  more  dangerous  to  that  cause  than 
the  open  and  avowed  friends  of  despotism.  But  this  very 
natural  mistake  of  the  friends  of  freedom  in  Europe,  this  ig- 
norance and  misconception  of  the  negro  nature  and  relations 

2 


2K       CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

to  the  white  man,  which  led  Fox  in  England,  and  Robespierre 
in  France,  to  confound  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  multitudes 
of  their  own  race  with  the  imaginary  interests  of  negrodom, 
extended  and  unfortunate  as  it  was  and  still  is,  was  surpassed 
by  a  still  more  insidious  and  more  extended  influence.  Wil- 
berforce,  who,  more  than  any  other  man,  gave  form  and  direc- 
tion to  the  great  "  anti-slavery"  delusion  of  modern  times,  was 
eminently  pious — as  piety  is  accepted  by  a  large  portion  of  the 
religious  world.  He  was  an  Episcopalian  in  form,  but  pre- 
eminently a  Puritan  in  practice  ;  and,  while  doubtless  sin- 
cere in  his  belief,  and  perfectly  correct  in  his  religious  habits, 
he  was  one  of  the  most  complete  bigots,  religious,  political, 
and  social,  the  world  ever  saw.  Belonging  to  the  ruling  class, 
and  possessed  of  a  considerable  fortune,  he  believed  that  his 
own  status  was  the  stand-point,  and  himself  the  model,  for  the 
government  of  society,  and  therefore  was  as  doggedly  and 
bitterly  opposed  to  any  change  in  England,  or  to  any  reform 
in  English  society,  as  he  was  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  relieve 
the  "  sufferings  of  the  slave"  in  America.  In  a  public  career 
of  some  forty  years,  as  a  member  of  Parliament,  he  never  failed 
to  record  his  vote  against  any  increase  of  popular  freedom,  or 
any  change  that  tended  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  white 
masses,  and  just  as  steadily  and  uniformly  labored  to  "  elevate" 
the  negro  to  the  status  of  the  English  laborer,  or,  at  all  events, 
to  favor  that  final  "  abolition  of  slavery,"  which  he  himself 
was  not,  however,  destined  to  witness  in  the  British  American 
possessions.  But  throughout  he  regarded  the  question  rather 
as  a  religious  than  a  political  one,  and  at  an  early  period,  in 
this  respect,  impressed  his  own  character  on  it.  Identified 
with  the  Church,  all  his  notions  those  of  the  High  Church 
party — substantially  the  notions  that  Archbishop  Laud  enter- 
tained two  centuries  before — by  birth  and  association  con* 
nected  with  the  landed  aristocracy,  and  yet  distinguished  for 


CAUSES  OF  POTULAE  DELUSION.       27 

practical  piety,  for  a  zeal  and  devotion  to  his  religious  dntics 
that  the  most  zealous  among  the  Dissenters  and  Evangelicals 
might  imitate  but  could  not  surpass,  thi?  was  just  the  man 
to  impress  a  great  movement  with  his  own  characteristics,  and 
the  "  anti-slavery  cause"  became  the  cause  of  religion  as  well 
as  of  liberty  with  the  religious  world.  Nor  was  it  confined  to 
the  "  American  slave  ;"  it  embraced  the  whole  world  of  heath- 
endom ;  and  a  religious  crusade  sprang  up,  that  fiually  became 
more  extended,  and,  in  some  respects,  more  permanent,  than 
the  great  political  movement  inaugurated  by  Jefferson  a  few 
years  before.  And  if  the  Father  of  Lies,  Lucifer  himself,  had 
plotted  a  plan  or  scheme  for  concealing  a  great  truth,  and 
embarrassing  a  great  cause,  he  could  have  accomplished  noth- 
ing more  effective  than  the  movement  that  Wilberforce  inaug- 
urated for  the  professed  benefit  of  the  negro  and  other  subor- 
dinate races  of  mankind,  which,  masked  under  the  form  of 
religious  duty,  and  appealing  to  the  conscience,  the  love  of 
proselytism,  the  enthusiasm,  and  even  the  bigotries  of  the 
religious  world,  has,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  held  in 
thrall  the  conscience  as  well  as  the  reason  of  Christendom. 
Robespierre,  and  other  patrons  of  the  Amis  des  J^oirs,  could 
only  present  a  common  cause,  that  "  universal  liberty"  which 
they  declared  to  be  the  birthright  of  all  men,  and  which  it 
were  better  that  every  conceivable  calamity  should  happen 
rather  than  this  "  great  principle"  should  perish  ;  but  when  it 
became  the  duty  of  every  Christian  man  and  woman,  every 
follower  of  Christ  and  professor  of  religion,  to  work  and 
pray  for  "the  deliverance  of  the  slave,"  then  a  power  was 
aroused  that  nothing  could  resist,  for  it  became  an  imme- 
diate and  sacred  duty  to  labor  in  this  cause.  Missionary  so- 
cieties were  organized,  money  contributed  by  millions  both 
in  Europe  and  America,  enthusiastic  men  and  women  offered 
their  services,  even  children  were  taught  to  give  their  pocket* 


28       CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

money  for  a  cause  so  holy  as  that  of  redeeming  the  "  slave," 
while  all  this  time  innumerable  multitudes  of  their  own  race, 
their  own  blood,  those  whom  God  had  created  their  equals, 
and  endowed  with  like  capacities,  instincts,  and  wants,  and 
therefore  designed  for  the  same  happiness  as  themselves,  were 
left  to  grovel  in  midnight  darkness  and  abject  misery. 

It  is  not  intended  to  sneer  at  or  to  indulge  in  unkind  criti- 
cism on  missionary  efforts.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  frankly  admit- 
ted that  they  sprang  from  the  sincerest  conviction,  and  were 
generally  pursued  with  an  utter  disregard  of  selfish  and  merce- 
nary considerations ;  but  in  not  understanding  the  diversity  of 
races,  these  efforts  were  more  likely  to  do  harm  than  good.  A 
man's  first  duties  are  to  his  own  household  ;  and  no  amount  or 
extent  of  benefits  conferred  on  strangers,  can  excuse  him  for 
neglecting  the  former ;  and  even  if  the  "  heathen" — the  Negro, 
Indian,  and  Sandwich  Islander — had  been  benefited  by  the 
efforts  of  Wilberforce  and  his  followers,  the  neglect  of  the  ig- 
norant, darkened,  and  miserable  millions  of  their  own  race, 
was  a  wrong  that  scarcely  has  a  parallel  in  history.  But  they 
did  not  benefit  the  subordinate  races,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
assuming  them  to  be  beings  like  themselves,  when  they  were 
widely  different  beings,  they  necessarily  injured  them;  and 
when  it  is  reflected  that  they  not  only  neglected  the  ignorant 
and  degraded  multitudes  of  their  own  race,  but  got  up  a  false 
issue,  in  order  to  distract  the  attention  and  conceal  the  wrongs 
of  their  own  people,  then  an  unequalled  crime  was  committed. 

The  government  of  England,  which  is  simply  an  embodi- 
ment of  the  class  to  which  Wilberforce  belonged,  acted  in  con- 
cert with  these  religious  efforts  ;  and  thus  we  see  the  leaders 
of  the  popular  cause  in  the  Old  World,  Fox  aud  Robespierre, 
the  Church  and  Aristocracy,  all  acting  together  in  a  common 
cause,  aud  laboring,  in  fact,  to  retard  the  progress  and  the 
liberation  of  millions  upon  millions  of  then-  own  race,  under 


CAUSES      OF     POPULAR     DELUSION.  29 

the  pretence,  and  doubtless  with  many,  in  the  belief,  that  they 
were  laboring  for  the  benefit  of  the  negro  and  other  subordi- 
nate races.  The  government  expended  about  a  thousand 
millions  to  crush  out  American  liberty  in  1776;  but  it  is 
quite  likely  that  an  almost  equal  sum,  expended  for  the  pro- 
fessed benefit  of  the  negro,  has  accomplished  vastly  more  than 
all  other  things  together  to  protract  the  liberation  of  her  own 
masses.  It  has  been  estimated  that  six  hundred  millions 
have  been  expended  nominally  to  put  down  the  slave  trade, 
but  in  reality  to  pervert  the  natural  relations  of  races,  and 
force  the  subordinate  negro  to  the  status  of  the  British  laborer. 
The  interest  on  this  enormous  sum  is  annually  drawn  from  the 
sweat  and  toil  of  the  English  masses;  and  every  hut  and  cot- 
tage in  the  British  Islands  is  forced  to  surrender  a  portion  of 
its  daily  food,  or  of  the  daily  earnings  of  its  owner,  to  pay  the 
interest  on  money  squandered  on  the  negro  in  America ! 
The  amount  thus  paid,  properly  expended,  would.be  amply 
sufficient  to  give  a  good  English  education  to  the  entire  labor- 
ing class ;  but  that  would  be  an  overwhelming  calamity  to  the 
governing  class,  who  could  not  retain  their  power  for  a  single 
day  after  the  masses  were  thus  enlightened. 

A  few  years  since,  famine  and  pestilence  swept  over  Ireland, 
Tarrying  off  some  three  millions  of  the  Irish  people,  all  of 
whom  might  have  been  saved  if  the  annual  amount  wasted  on 
negroes  in  America  had  been  applied  to  this  beneficent  and 
legitimate  purpose.  Indeed,  it  is  quite  possible  that  if  the 
money  wrung  from  the  sweat  and  toil  of  Irishmen  alone,  for  the 
pretended  benefit  of  the  negro,  had  been  appropriated  to  the 
relief  of  the  suffering  multitudes  of  that  unhappy  people,  few 
would  really  have  perished.  The  mortgage  on  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  future  generations  of  British  laborers,  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  "doing  good"  to  the  negro,  enormous  as  the 
amount  may  be — and  it  has  been  estimated  as  high  as  one  thou- 


30       CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

Band  million  dollars — is  only  a  portion  of  the  vast  waste  and 
wholesale  destruction  of  property  involved  in  the  British  Free 
Negro  policy,  or  so-called  schemes  of  philanthropy.  Farms 
and  plantations  in  Jamaica  and  other  islands,  valued  at  fifty 
thousand  pounds  prior  to  the  "  emancipation,"  were  afterward 
sold  with  difficulty  at  ten  and  even  five  thousand  pounds ;  and 
indeed  extensive  districts  were  abandoned  by  their  unfortu- 
nate owners.  An  infamous  system  of  fraud  and  inhumanity, 
practiced  of  late  years  on  the  ignorant  and  simple  Chinese  and 
other  Asiatics,  has  enabled  some  planters  to  recover  and  re- 
store their  wasted  and  plundered  estates  ;  and  the  vile  hypo- 
crites who  filled  the  world  with  their  doleful  lamentations  over 
the  sorrows  of  Africa,  not  only  wink  at  this  infinitely  greater 
wrong  practiced  on  Asiatics,  but  resort  to  the  effects  attending 
it,  as  a  proof  that  emancipation  has  not  ruined  these  beautiful 
islands !  Could  audacity  and  hypocrisy  surpass,  or  did  they  ever 
surpass,  this  shameless  fraud  ?  But  this  new  and  vastly  more 
atrocious  system  of  "  man-stealing,"  is  transitional  and  tem- 
porary. The  Mongol  or  Asiatic  is  rapidly  worked  up  and 
destroyed  in  the  West  Indies  ;  and,  as  no  females  are  intro- 
duced, they  can  never  become  an  essential  or  permanent  ele- 
ment of  the  population. 

The  negro,  forced  from  his  normal  condition,  and  into  un- 
natural relation  to  the  white  man,  must  relapse  into  his  African 
habits,  just  as  fast  as  the  white  element  disappears ;  and  as  the 
latter  is  relatively  feeble,  the  time  must  soon  come,  unless  we 
take  possession  and  restore  the  natural  order,  when  civiliza- 
tion itself  will  utterly  perish,  and  the  great  heart  of  the  con- 
tinent be  surrendered  to  African  savagism !  The  eternal  and 
immovable  laws  fixed  forever  in  the  heart  and  organism  of 
things,  can  not  be  changed  or  modified  by  human  folly,  fraud, 
or  power;  and  therefore  the  climate,  the  soil,  the  products, 
and   the   means   that   the   Almighty   has   ordained   shall   be 


CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION.       3\ 

used  to  make  them  tributary  to  human  welfare,  hare  their 
fixed  and  everlasting  relations  since  time  began.  The  brain 
of  the  white  man  and  the  muscles  of  the  negro,  the  mind  ot 
the  superior  and  the  body  of  the  inferior  race,  in  natural  rela- 
tion to  each  other,  are  the  vital  principles  of  tropical  civiliza- 
tion, without  which  it  is  as  impossible  that  civilization  should 
exist  in  the  great  centre  of  the  continent,  as  that  vegetation 
should  spring  from  granite,  or  animals  exist  without  atmos- 
pheric air  ;  and,  therefore,  thrusting  the  negro  from  his  natural 
sphere  into  unnatural  relations  with  the  white  man,  necessa- 
rily destroys  the  latter,  and  drives  the  other  into  his  inherent 
and  original  Africanism. 

The  delusion,  the  folly,  or  the  fraud  of  "Wilberforce  and  his 
associates,  in  presenting  a  false  issue  to  their  own  wronged 
and  oppressed  millions,  and  thus  diverting  their  attention 
from  their  own  oppressions  to  the  imaginary  sufferings  of 
negroes  and  other  subordinate  races,  is  so  transcendent,  its 
magnitude  so  enormous,  that  we  have  no  terms  in  our  lan- 
guage that  can  express  it ;  but  great  and  indeed  awful  as  may 
be  this  wrong  on  the  white  man,  it  is  in  some  respects  really 
surpassed  by  the  evils,  if  not  the  wrongs,  inflicted  on  the 
negro.  More  than  one  million  of  negroes  are  believed  to  have 
perished,  through  the  means  resorted  to  to  suppress  the  slave 
trade ;  and  now  it  is  admitted  that  thos<2  attempts  have  not 
prevented  the  importation  of  one  single  negro !  The  world 
needed  the  products  of  the  tropics  ;  the  labor  of  a  certain 
number  of  negroes  were  needed  to  furnish  these  products  ;  and 
therefore,  when  fifty  thousand  were  required  in  Cuba,  eighty 
thousand  were  shipped  on  the  African  coast,  thus  leaving  a 
margin  of  thirty  thousand  to  be  destroyed  by  interference 
with  the  laws  of  demand  and  supply.  Who  can  contemplate 
these  frightful  results  without  awe,  and  sorrow,  and  pity,  not 
alone  for  the  victims,  but  for  the  authors  of  such  wide-spre-ad 


32       CAUSES  OF  POPULAR  DELUSION. 

and  boundless  calamity.  The  crusades  of  the  middle  ages  ara 
now  recognized  as  utterly  baseless — simple  human  delusions, 
in  which  millions  of  lives  were  sacrificed,  not  to  an  idea,  but 
to  a  false  assumption — an  assumption  that  the  Holy  Sepulchre; 
could  be  recovered  at  Jerusalem.  That  crusade  of  "  human- 
ity," in  behalf  of  the  subordinate  races,  set  up  by  Wilberforce 
and  his  associates  in  modern  times,  is  also  a  simple  delusion, 
based  on  a  false  assumption,  the  assumption  that  negroes  are 
blade-white  men,  or  men  like  ourselves,  and  though  not  so 
fatal  to  human  life  as  the  former,  its  effects  or  influences  on 
human  welfare  are  vastly  and  immeasurably  more  deplorable. 
Such  is  the  great  "  anti-slavery"  delusion  of  our  times.  It 
is  wholly  European  and  monarchical  in  its  origin  ;  and  leaving 
out  of  view  all  other  considerations,  its  mere  existence  among 
us,  or  that  any  considerable  number  of  Americans  could  be  so 
deluded  and  mentally  so  degraded,  as  to  embrace  it,  will  aston- 
ish posterity  to  the  latest  generations.  We  are  in  contact 
with  the  negro — we  see  he  is  a  negro — a  different  being  from 
ourselves.  We  will  not — even  the  most  deluded  Abolitionist 
will  not,  in  his  own  case  or  family,  act  on  the  assumption  that 
he  is  a  being  like  himself,  indeed,  would  rather  see  his  child 
carried  to  the  grave  than  intermarried  with  a  negro,  however 
rich,  cultivated,  and  pious  ;  and  rather  than  thus  live  out  his 
own  professed  belief,  he  would  prefer  the  death  of  his  whole 
household.  The  European,  on  the  contrary,  naturally  enough 
supposes  the  negro  to  differ  only  in  color ;  and  the  monarchist 
— the  enemy  of  Democracy — the  man  opposed  to  the  great 
principle  of  equality  underlying  our  system — -just  as  naturally 
demands  that  we  shall  be  consistent  and  apply  it  to  negroes. 
But  instead  of  enlightening  this  European  ignorance,  and 
indignantly  rejecting  this  monarchical  impudence,  which  pro- 
poses that  we  shall  degrade  our  blood  and  destroy  our  institu- 
tions, by  including  a  subordinate  race  in  our  political  system, 


CAUSES   OF  POPULAR  DELUSION.       33 

we  have  foolishly,  wickedly,  and  ahjectly  assented  to  the  Eu- 
ropean assumption,  and  millions  of  Americans  have  based  their 
reasonings,  and  to  a  certain  extent  their  actions,  on  this  pal- 
pable fundamental,  and  monstrous  falsehood.  Those  portions 
of  the  country  most  directly  under  the  mental  dictation  of  the 
Old  World,  are  those,  of  course,  most  given  up  to  the  delu- 
sion, but  nearly  the  whole  northern  mind  has  adopted  it  as  a 
mental  habit.  The  time,  however,  has  come  when  it  must  be 
exploded,  and  the  reason  of  the  people  restored,  or  it  will  drag 
after  it  consequences  and  calamities  that  one  shudders  to  con- 
template. Eighty  years  ago  it  was  an  abstraction,  universally 
assented  to,  and  just  as  universally  rejected  in  practice  ;  for 
all  the  States  save  one  then  recognized  the  legal  subordination 
of  the  negro  as  a  social  necessity,  whatever  the  speculative 
notions  were  on  this  subject.  They  generally  believed  that, 
in  some  indefinite  or  mysterious  manner,  it  would — or  rather 
that  the  negro  would — become  extinct ;  and  as  the  industrial 
powers  of  this  element  of  the  general  population  was  not 
specifically  adapted  to  our  then  territory,  all  perhaps  were 
willing  to  hope  that  it  should  some  day  disappear.  But  the 
vast  acquisition  of  Southern  territory,  the  discovery  and  open- 
ing up  of  new  channels  of  industry,  and  the  extensive  cultiva- 
tion of  those  great  staples  so  essential  to  human  welfare,  which 
are  only  to  be  attained  on  this  continent  by  the  labor  of  the 
negro  when  directed  by  the  white  man  ;  and,  moreover,  the 
rapid  increase  of  this  population,  and  the  certainty  that  it 
must  remain  forever  an  element  of  our  population,  demand 
that  this  mighty  delusion  shall  be  exposed,  as  it  is  in  fact 
the  vilest  and  most  infamous  fraud  on  the  freedom,  dignity, 
and  welfare  of  the  white  millions  ever  witnessed  since  the 
world  began. 


CHAPTER  II. 

GENERAL  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION. 

The  organic  world  is  separated  into  two  great  divisions, 
animal  and  vegetable,  or  into  animate  and  inanimate  beings.  In 
regard  to  the  vegetable  kingdom,  as  it  is  termed,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  say  a  word;  those  desirous  of  obtaining  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  animal  life,  however,  had  better  begin  then-  stud- 
ies with  the  more  elementary  and  simple  forms  of  vegetable 
being.  Many  persons  suppose  that  the  whole  animate  exist- 
ence is  linked  together  by  connecting  or  continuous  gradations. 
In  a  certain  sense  this  may  be  said  to  be  so ;  nevertheless, 
absolutely  considered,  each  family  or  form  of  being  is  a  com- 
plete and  independent  creation.  There  are  resemblances  and 
approximations  as  well  as  gradations,  yet  each  is  perfect  in 
itself,  and  makes  up  an  entire  world  of  its  own.  The  Almighty 
Creator,  in  His  infinite  wisdom,  has  provided  against  chance, 
or  accident,  or  human  caprice,  and  placed  each  and  every  one 
of  His  works  in  a  position  of  such  absolute  independence,  that 
one  of  them,  or  more,  perhaps,  might  utterly  perish,  and  yet 
the  beauty  and  harmony  of  nature  would  remain  unimpaired. 
It  is  certain  that  some  species  of  animals  belonging  to  the  ex- 
isting order  have  utterly  disappeared,  and  it  is  quite  probable 
that  some  species  of  men  have  perished ;  but  the  grand  econ- 
omy of  nature  is  unalfected  by  it.  It  is  thought  that  the  abor- 
igines of  this  continent  will,  in  time,  utterly  perish,  and  yet  no 
one  supposes  that  that  event  will  disturb  the  operations  of 
nature  or  deface  the  fair  form  of  creation.     This  shows  that 


GENERAL  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION      35 

there  is  no  continuous  or  connecting  link  even  amoDg  species 
of  the  same  family  or  form  of  being.  If  there  were  such — if 
all  the  forms  of  life  were  continuous  and  connecting  gradations 
— then  it  is  evident  that  the  destruction  of  one  of  these  con- 
necting links  would  cast  the  whole  economy  of  being  into  otter 
confusion.  In  a  watch,  or  any  other  elaborate  machinery  of 
human  contrivance,  a  single  wheel,  or  cog,  or  link,  however 
minute,  torn  from  its  place,  involves  the  disruption,  if  not  ab- 
solute destruction,  of  the  whole  machine.  And  so  it  is  in  the 
economy  of  individual  life,  for,  though  one  organ  may  be  dis- 
abled, another,  to  a  certain  extent,  and  for  a  given  time,  sup- 
plies its  place;  yet  the  vital  forces  are  enfeebled  from  the 
instant  of  such  accident,  and  life,  if  not  interrupted,  is  always 
impaired.  But  a  species,  a  genus,  a  class,  perhaps,  a  great 
number  of  these,  might  disappear,  utterly  vanish  from  exist- 
ence, and  those  remaining  would  preserve  the  integrity  and 
completeness  the  Creator  had  endowed  them  with  at  the 
beginning.  While  each  and  every  form  of  life  is,  therefore, 
perfect  in  itself  and  independent  of  all  others,  there  are  resem- 
blances and  approximations  that  must  be  regarded  as  of  vital 
importance. 

Naturalists  have  divided  or  separated  the  organic  world  into 
classes,  orders,  genera,  species  and  varieties.  Classes  are  those 
like  the  mammalia — that  is,  all  animals  where  the  female  nour- 
ishes its  offspring  by  mammary  glands.  Orders  are  those  like 
the  quadrumana — all  those  having  four  hands.  A  genus,  or 
a  family  proper,  is  composed  of  species ;  and  a  species  in- 
cludes varieties,  or  possible  varieties,  of  the  same  being  under 
different  circumstances.  But  these  classifications  are,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  arbitrary ;  and  though  they  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  facilitating  our  studies,  they  may  also  lead  us  astray, 
if  too  closely  followed.  Genera,  or  families  proper,  in  many 
cases  at  least,  are,  however,  susceptible  of  very  exact  defin- 


86      GENERAL  LAWS  OP  ORGANIZATION. 

itions.  So,  too,  are  species.  For  example :— The  simiadre,  or 
monkey  family,  are  so  entirely  distinct  that  they  will  not  be  or 
need  not  be  confounded  with  anything  else.  Some  ignorant 
or  superficial  persons,  with  the  false  i  otion  of  continuous  and 
connecting  gradations,  have  supposed  the  negro  something 
midway  between  men  and  animals.  But  there  is  no  such 
monstrosity  in  nature,  for,  as  already  observed,  each  form  of 
being  is  a  complete  and  independent  creation  in  itself.  A 
genus  is  composed  of  a  given  number  of  species,  all  diff—^t 
from  each  other,  and,  it  need  not  be  repeated,  independent  of 
each  other.  These  genera  are  believed  to  be  incapable  of  in- 
terunion  with  other  genera,  though  this  has  been  questioned  in 
some  cases.  Species  are  capable  of  a  limited  interunion,  though 
it  may  be  doubted  if  such  interunion  ever  occurs  in  a  wild  or 
savage  state.  And  as  each  species  is  different  in  form  and 
character  from  others,  so  the  limited  capacity  for  interunion 
varies,  or  in  other  words,  hybrids — the  product  of  different 
species — vary  in  their  virility  or  power  of  reproduction.  The 
given  number  of  species  of  which  a  genus  is  composed,  ascends 
or  descends  in  the  scale  of  being,  that  is,  there  is  a  head  and 
base  to  the  generic  column.  The  one  next  above  the  most 
inferior  has  all  the  qualities  of  the  latter,  but  these  qualities 
have  a  fuller  development,  that  is,  the  organization  is  more 
elaborate  and  the  corresponding  faculties  are  of  a  higher  order. 
And  hideed  tins  is  not  confined  to  mere  species  or  genera  even, 
but  is  true  of  widely  separated  beings.  Thus,  the  exalted  and 
elegant  Caucasian  mother — the  habitue  of  the  Fifth  avenue  or 
St.  Germain — nourishes  her  offspring  by  the  same  process 
common  to  the  meanest  of  the  mammalia.  So,  too,  in  the 
process  of  gestation,  the  function  of  mastication,  deglutition, 
digestion,  the  sense  of  taste,  of  sight,  etc.— the  function  is  ab- 
solutely the  same,  but  what  a  world  of  difference  in  the  mode 


(jflNEEAl     LAWS     OP     ORGANIZATION.  37 

of  its  manifestation,  that  distinguishes  the  human  being  from 
the  animal ! 

Investigations  made  by  some  French  physiologists  would 
seem  to  show  that  the  mysterious  problem  of  animal  life  might 
be  simplified,  and  clearly  grasped  by  the  human  intellect,  by 
simply  tracing  this  great  fact  to  its  elementary  sources.  It  is 
said  that  the  embryo  (Caucasian)  foetus  passes  through  all  th 
forms  of  an  innumerable  number  of  lower  gradations  before  it 
reaches  its  own  specific  development.  And  be  this  as  it  may, 
enough  is  seemingly  established  to  demonstrate  its  truth  in  re- 
spect to  a  genus  or  family,  and  especially  is  it  demonstrated 
in  the  human  creation.  At  a  certain  stage  of  fcetal  develop- 
ment there  is  the  cranial  manifestation  of  the  Negro,  then  the 
aboriginal  American,  the  Malay,  the  Mongolian,  and  finally 
the  broad  expansion  and  oval  perfection  of  the  most  perfect  of 
all,  the  superior  Caucasian.  Nor  can  these  demonstrations  be 
mistaken,  for  it  is  not  a  mere  question  of  size  but  of  form. 
The  negro  brain  is  small  and  longitudinal — thus  approximat- 
ing to  the  simiadse  and  other  animals.  The  aboriginal  is  larger 
and  quadrangular,  almost  square  in  its  general  outline.  The 
Mongolian  pyramidal,  and  still  larger  than  cither  of  the  others. 
Finally,  at  the  period  of  complete  gestation,  there  is  the  full 
and  complete  oval  development,  alone  peculiar  to  the  Cauca- 
sian. The  force  of  these  distinctions  may  be  easily  grasped  by 
the  non-scientific  reader  by  bearing  in  mind  that  a  female  of 
either  of  these  races  or  species  could  no  more  give  birth  to  a 
child  with  the  cranial  development  of  a  race  different  from  her 
own,  than  she  could  to  that  of  an  inferior  animal.  The  dis- 
tinctions of  nature,  or  the  boundaries  which  separate  even 
species  from  each  other,  are  absolutely  impassable ;  each  has 
the  hand  of  the  Eternal  impressed  upon  it  forever,  winch 
neither  accident  nor  time  can  modify  in  the  slightest  particular. 
They  have,  it  is  true,  a  limited  capacity  for  interunion,  and  we 


88      GENERAI  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION. 

sometimes  witness  the  disgusting  spectacle  of  a  white  woman 
with  a  so-called  negro  husband.  But  while  the  offspring  of 
this  unnatural  connection  is  limited  in  number,  they  partake  of 
the  nature  of  both  the  parents,  and  thus  the  birth  becomes 
possible,  though  at  the  expense  of  great  physical  suffering  to 
the  mother  and  perhaps  in  every  case  shortening  her  existence. 
In  another  place  this  subject  will  be  more  especially  discussed; 
it  is  only  referred  to  in  tins  connection  to  show  the  perfect 
order  and  hai-mony  in  the  economy  of  animal  life.  The  primal 
steps — the  process  of  reproduction — the  starting  point  of  crea- 
tion— being  in  complete  harmony  with  the  laws  governing  the 
being,  man  or  animal,  after  it  has  reached  its  mature  develop- 
ment. 

The  same  eternal  separation  of  all  the  forms  of  being  and 
the  same  eternal  approximations,  however  varied  the  manifes- 
tations may  be  at  different  periods,  remain  unaltered  and  un- 
alterable. Linnreus  ventured  to  place  "  man"  in  the  category 
or  class  mammalia,  while  at  the  same  time  he  separated  the 
mammalia  from  birds  and  other  forms  of  being — thus  assum- 
ing that  the  human  creation  had  a  closer  union  with  pigs  and 
dogs,  than  the  latter  have  with  birds,  etc.  At  this  every 
Christian  and  believer  in  a  future  state  of  being  must  revolt, 
for  though  there  are  certain  approximations  that  cannot  be 
disregarded,  nevertheless  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  human 
creation  is  separated  by  an  interval  wider  than  that  separating 
any  of  the  forms  of  mere  animal  life,  and  therefore  his  classifi- 
cation must  be  wrong. 

It  is  not  intended  to  make  this  a  scientific  work,  but  on  the 
contrary,  to  popularize  for  the  general  reading  of  the  people, 
some  few  elementary  truths  of  zoology  and  physiology  in  order 
that  they  can  better  comprehend  the  subject  really  to  be  dis- 
cussed, viz. : — the  specific  differences  and  specific  relations  of 
the  white  and  black  races.     But  the  author  feels  himself  con- 


GENERAL  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION.      39 

scientiously  impelled  to  dissent  from  the  classifications  of  Lin- 
nams,  and  those  modern  naturalists  who  follow  him,  not  only  as 
being  untrue  in  point  of  fict,  but  pregnant  with  mighty  mis- 
chief. Linnaeus  placed  "  man"  in  the  category  mammalia,  but 
made  him  an  order,  a  genus  and  species  by  himself  This  is 
false  as  a  matter  of  fact,  for  in  the  entire  -world  of  animal 
existence  there  is  no  such  fact  as  a  single  species.  All  the 
forms  of  life  are  made  up  of  groups  or  families,  properly  gen- 
era, and  each  of  these  is  composed  of  a  certain  number  of 
species.  These  species,  as  already  observed,  differ  from  each 
other.  They  begin  with  the  lowest,  or  simplest,  or  grossest 
formation,  and  rise,  one  above  the  other,  in  the  scale  of  being, 
until  the  group  is  completed ;  so  that  they  are  all,  not  only 
specifically  different  from  each  other,  but  absolutely  unlike 
each  other  in  evei-y  thing,  in  the  minutest  particle  of  elemen- 
tary matter  as  well  as  in  those  things  palpable  to  the  sense. 
Generally  considered,  they  resemble  each  other,  but  specifically 
considered,  they  are  absolutely  distinct,  and,  it  need  not  be 
repeated,  the  distinctions  in  each  case  or  each  individual  spe- 
cies are  also  specific. 

That  Linnseus  and  other  European  naturalists,  and  especially 
the  ethnologists,  should  make  such  a  mistake,  and  suppose  that 
the  human  creation  is  composed  of  a  single  species,  is  perhaps 
natural  enough,  for  they  saw  but  one — the  two  hundred  mil- 
lions of  Europe,  except  a  few  thousand  Laplanders,  being  all 
Caucasians.  But  then  it  is  strange  how  those  so  ready  to 
class  men  with  animals  should  so  widely  depart  from  the  spirit 
and  order  of  their  own  classification.  They  must  have  known 
that  in  the  whole  world  of  animate  existence  there  was  no  such 
fact  as  a  single  species,  and  therefore  when  assuming  only  a 
single  human  species,  that  they  directly  contradicted  or  ig- 
nored the  most  constant,  universal  and  uniform  fact  in  organio 
life,  a  fact  underlying  and  forming  the  very  basis  of  all  with 


40  GENERAL    LAWS     OF     O  E  G  A  NI  Z  A  T  I  ON. 

which  they  were  dealing.  This  mistake,  or  misconception,  01 
ignorance  of  European  ethnologists,  however,  is  of  no  particu- 
lar importance.  They  saw  no  other  and  therefore  could  know 
of  no  other  species  of  men  except  their  own,  and  though  its 
effect  on  ourselves  has  been  mischievous,  the  cause  of  their 
misconception  is  so  palpable  to  men's  common  sense  that  it 
only  needs  to  be  pointed  out  to  be  utterly  rejected.  It  is 
about  as  respectable  as  the  assumptions  of  the  northern  Abol- 
itionists, who,  though  not  even  venturing  out  of  Massachusetts, 
affect  to  know,  and  doubtless  really  believe  that  they  do  know, 
more  about  the  internal  condition  of  South  Carolina  or  Vir- 
ginia than  the  people  of  those  States  themselves.  But  facts  are 
stubborn  things,  and,  as  the  Spanish  proverb  says,  "  seeing  is 
believing."  It  is  impossible  that  the  northern  Abolitionist  who 
never  ventured  out  of  New  England  can  comprehend  a  condi- 
tion of  society  that  he  has  never  seen.  So,  too,  the  authority 
of  European  writers,  necessarily  ignorant  of  the  subject,  will 
be  rejected  by  those  whose  very  senses  assure  them  that 
negroes  are  specifically  different  from  white  men.  And  that 
mental  dominion  which,  beginning  with  the  early  planting  of 
Enropean  colonies  on  this  continent,  has  continued  long  after 
political  independence  has  been  secured,  only  needs  to  be  cast 
off  altogether,  to  convince  every  one  of  the  utter  absurdity  of 
European  teachings  on  the  subject. 

But  there  is  an  objection  to  the  Linnasan  classification  infin- 
itely more  important  than  this  misconception  in  regard  to 
species.  He  places  his  one  human  species  (Caucasian)  in  the 
class  mammalia,  and  therefore  assumes  that  the  human  creation 
has  a  closer  connection  with  a  class  of  animals,  than  these  ani- 
mals themselves  have  with  some  other  forms  of  animal  life. 
For  example :  men  (and  white  men,  too)  approximate  more 
closely  to  dogs  and  cats  than  the  latter  do  to  owls  and  eagles ! 
It  does  not  help  the  matter  to  say  that  this  is  only  in  their 


GENERAL     LAWS     OF     ORGANIZATION.  41 

animal  structures,  for  there  is  an  invariable  and  imperishable 
unity  between  the  material  organization  and  the  external  man- 
ifestations or  faculties,  which  is  fixed  forever,  and  the  conclu- 
sion or  inference  from  the  Linnasan  assumption  is  unavoidable 
— if  men  approximate  more  closely  to  a  class  of  annuals  than 
these  animals  do  to  some  other  class,  then  it  is  absurd  to  sup- 
pose the  purposes  assigned  them  by  the  Almighty  are  so 
widely  different  as  our  reason  and  instinct  alike  impel  us  to 
believe.  To  hope  for  or  to  believe  in  immortality,  or  in  a  des- 
tiny so  transcendent,  while  beings  that  closely  resembled  us 
perished  with  this  life,  in  common  with  those  still  farther 
separated  from  themselves,  was  such  a  contradiction  to  reason, 
that  men  involuntarily  shrunk  from  it,  and  the  result  has 
been  to  repel  vast  numbers  of  people  from  the  study  and 
investigation  of  this  most  essential  element  of  all  knowl- 
edge. The  Materialists  promptly  accepted  it,  and  wielded  it 
with  tremendous  effect  in  advancing  their  gloomy  and  forbid- 
ding philosophy,  while  those  impelled  by  that  innate  and  inde- 
scribable consciousness  of  the  soul  itself,  which,  in  its  Godlike 
knowledge,  rises  high  beyond  the  realms  of  reason  and  mere 
human  will,  and  assures  them  of  a  life  immortal  and  everlast- 
ing, shrunk  from  all  study  or  investigation  of  the  laws  of  phys- 
ical life,  as  if  it  involved  consequences  fatal  to  that  higher  life 
of  the  soul.  The  former  said,  and  said  truly,  if  men  have  a 
closer  union  with  the  quadrumana  than  the  latter  have  with 
birds,  etc.,  then  it  is  all  nonsense  to  suppose  that  they  have  an 
eternity  of  life,  while  those  separated  by  a  still  wider  interval 
are  limited  to  the  present.  And  the  only  reply  to  their  reason- 
ing has  been  the  refusal  to  investigate  the  subject  or  to  study 
the  laws  of  God,  and  to  admit,  inferentially  at  least,  that  there 
was  a  contradiction  between  the  word  and  the  works  of  the 
Almighty. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  find  men  of  great  intelh- 


42      GENERAL  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION. 

gence  on  almost  every  subject  except  this,  the  most  vital, 
indeed  the  foundation  and  starting  point  of  all  real  knowledge. 
Especially  are  clergymen  ignorant,  and  those  who  assume  to 
be  the  interpreters  of  the  laws  of  God  are  not  unfrequently 
the  most  ignorant  of  the  most  palpable  and  fundamental  of 
these  laws.  This  should  not  be  so,  and  in  all  reasonable  prob- 
ability would  not  be  so  had  it  not  been  for  the  untruthful  and 
unfortunate  classification  of  Linnaeus.  Instead  of  meeting  the 
Materialists  on  their  own  ground,  and  showing  them  that  how- 
ever approximating  to  certain  forms  of  animal  life,  the 
human  creation  was  yet  separated  by  an  absolutely  boundless 
as  well  as  impassable  interval — for  the  distinctions  between 
them  are  utterly  unlike  those  separating  mere  animal  beings — 
they  tacitly  admitted  the  truth  of  their  assumptions,  and  met 
it  by  a  blind  and  foolish  refusal  to  investigate  the  matter,  in- 
deed have  generally  cast  their  influence  on  the  side  of  ignoi*- 
ance,  and  advised  against  the  study  of  nature  and  the  noblest 
works  of  God. 

But  there  can  be  no  contradiction;  God  cannot  lie;  and 
whatever  seeming  conflict  there  may  be  at  times  between  His 
word  and  His  works,  a  further  search  is  alone  needed  to  show 
their  perfect  uniformity.  It  is  true  that  the  physical  resem- 
blances between  men  and  beings  of  the  class  mammalia  seem 
closer  than  those  of  the  latter  and  some  other  forms  of  life, 
but  while  there  is  also  an  eternal  correspondence  between 
structure  and  functions,  it  is  rational  and  philosophical  to  sup- 
pose that  the  difference  in  the  qualities  or  external  manifesta- 
tions is  the  safest  standard  of  comparison.  Or  in  other  words, 
whatever  may  be  the  seeming  physical  resemblances,  the  dif- 
ferences in  the  faculties  show  that  the  former  are  not  reliable. 
For  example:  in  contemplating  the  intelligence  of  certain 
quadrupeds  and  birds,  can  any  one  suppose  or  believe  for  a 
moment  that  the  difference  between  thrm  in  this  respect  equals 


GEKEBAL  LAWS  OF  ORGANIZATION.      43 

or  even  approaches  to  that  separating  both  from  human  be- 
ings ?  And  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  our  igno- 
rance of  the  elementary  arrangement  of  organic  life,  it  is  sure!) 
safer  and  more  philosophical  to  be  governed  by  our  reason 
rather  than  our  senses — to  accept  the  differences  which  sepa- 
rate human  intelligence  from  the  animal  world  as  boundless 
and  immeasurable  when  compared  with  the  apparent  physical 
approximations  which  seem  to  unite  us  with  a  class  of  the 
latter. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  repeat  that  there  is 
a  fixed,  uniform,  and  universal  correspondence  between  struc- 
ture and  function,  or  between  organism  and  the  purpose  it  is 
designed  to  fulfil.  We  do  not  know  nor  need  to  know  the 
cause  of  this  or  the  nature  of  this  unity.  We  only  know,  and 
are  only  permitted  to  know, that  it  exists,  and  are  not  bound 
to  accept  the  dogma  of  the  Materialists,  that  function  is  the 
result  of  organism  ;  nor  that  of  their  opponents,  who  still  more 
falsely  imagine  results  without  causes,  or  that  there  can  be 
functions  without  organism.  Truth,  in  this  instance,  lies  be- 
tween extremes : — functions  or  faculties  cannot  exist  without  a 
given  structms  or  organism,  but  they  are  not  a  result  of  that 
organism.  They  exist  together  inseparably,  universally,  eter- 
nally dependent  on  each  other,  but  not  a  result  of  either.  To 
see  there  must  be  eyes ;  to  hear,  ears  ;  to  walk,  the  organism 
of  locomotion ;  to  manifest  a  certain  extent  of  intelligence 
there  must  be  a  corresponding  mental  organism,  but  there  is 
no  such  thing  proper  as  cause  and  effect,  nothing  but  fact — 
the  fact  of  mutual  existence. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

The  human  creation,  like  all  other  families  or  forms  of  being, 
is  composed  of  a  genus,  which  includes  some  half  dozen  or 
more  species.  It  has  been  the  fashion  to  caU  these  permanent 
varieties,  and  almost  every  writer  on  ethnology  has  made  his 
own  classification,  or  rather  has  created  what  number  he 
pleased  of  these  "  imaginary  varieties."  Agassiz,  unquestion- 
ably the  greatest  of  American  naturalists,  but  unfortunately 
not  much  of  a  physiologist,  and  therefore  unprepared  to  deal 
with  the  higher  truths  of  ethnology,  supposes  several  species 
of  white  men,  and,  in  regard  to  the  subordinate  races,  would 
doubtless  multiply  them  ad  infinitum.  But  at  this  time,  or  in 
the  existing  state  of  our  knowledge,  the  number  actually 
known  to  exist  cannot  be  assumed  beyond  that  already  named. 
They  are  thus: — 1st.  The  Caucasian.  2d.  The  Mongolian. 
3d.  The  Malay  or  Oceanic.  4th.  The  Aboriginal  American. 
5th.  The  Esquimaux;  and  6th.  The  Negro  or  typical  African. 

The  Caucasian  can  be  confounded  with  no  other,  for  though 
in  some  localities,  climate  and  perhaps  other  causes  darken  the 
skin,  sometimes  with  a  deep  olive  tint,  and  extending,  as  with 
the  Bedouins  and  the  Jews  of  the  Malabar  coast,  to  almost 
black,  the  flowing  beard  (more  constant  than  color),  projecting 
forehead,  oval  features,  erect  posture  and  lorcny  presence, 
stamp  him  the  master  man  wherever  foimd. 

The  Mongolian,  though  less  distinctive,  is,  however,  suffi- 
ciently so,  for  his  yellow  skin,  squat  figure,  beardless  face, 


THE     HUMAN     CREATIOK.  45 

pyramidal  head,  and  almond  eyes,  can  scarcely  be  confounded 
with  any  other  form  of  man.  The  Malay  is  less  known,  and 
therefore  more  difficult  to  describe.  They  are  darker  than  the 
Mongol,  though  in  some  islands  of  a  bright  copper  color,  and 
indeed,  vary  from  light  olive  to  dark  brown,  and  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Australians,  to  deep  black,  but  with  no  other  approxi- 
mation to  the  Negro. 

The  vast  populations  known  under  the  term  Papuan,  and 
mainly  Malay,  are  doubtless  extensively  mixed  with  the  Ne- 
gro, for  however  remote  the  time,  or  whatever  the  form  or 
mode,  real  negro  populations  have  resided  in  tropical  Asia, 
and  left  behind  them  these  remains  of  their  former  existence. 
In  some  islands,  like  New  Zealand,  etc.,  the  ruling  dynas- 
ties or  principal  families  have  a  considerable  infusion  of  Cau- 
casian blood,  which  is  shown  in  their  tallj  erect  form,  more 
or  less  beard,  fair  complexion,  and  manly  presence,  and  intel- 
lectually in  their  prompt  and  often  intelligent  acceptance  of 
Christianity. 

The  Indian,  American,  or  Aboriginal,  needs  no  description  ; 
suffice  it  to  say  that,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River  to 
Cape  Horn,  they  are  the  same  species.  It  is  quite  possible, 
indeed  probable,  that  some  species,  fomerly  ousting  on  this 
continent,  have  disappeared — utterly  perished.  The  investiga- 
tions of  Dr.  Tschudi  warrant  this  belief,  though  his  nice  dis- 
criminations in  regard  to  some  of  the  bones  of  the  head  are  of 
little  or  no  importance,  as  all  this  might  be,  and  doubtless  was, 
the  result  of  artificial  causes.  But  crania  discovered  in  South- 
ern Mexico  and  Yucatan,  as  well  as  in  Peru  and  Brazil,  are 
sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  the  belief  that  a  still  inferior  race 
did  once  really  inhabit  this  continent,  but  whether  aboriginal 
or  brought  here  by  some  superior  race,  may  never  be  known. 
The  remains  of  ancient  structures  in  Yucatan,  in  Peru,  in  Mex- 
ico, in  Brazil,  all  over  the  southern  portion  of  the  continent, 


46  THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

show  simply  the  traces  of  Caucasian  intrusion.  It  has  been 
generally  supposed  that  Columbus  and  his  companions  were 
the  first  white  men  that  ever  visited  this  continent,  but  it  may 
have  been  discovered,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  occupied,  at 
least  certain  localities  occupied,  before  even  Europe  itself,  or 
before  the  period  of  authentic  history.  Any  one  visiting  Mex- 
ico, Puebla,  or  other  cities  of  Spanish  America,  is  amazed  and 
bewildered  with  the  contrast  between  the  vast  and  magnifi- 
cent structures  that  meet  his  eye,  and  the  existing  population. 
He  involuntarily  asks  himself,  "  Can  these  people  be  the  au- 
thors of  all  this  art,  this  beauty,  strength  and  magnificence  ? 
Can  these  miserable,  barefooted,  blanketed,  idle  and  stolid- 
looking  creatures  have  built  these  palaces,  these  churches,  these 
bridges,  these  mighty  structures,  which  seem  to  have  been  built 
for  eternity  itself,  so  strong  and  secure  are  their  foundations?" 
Some  years  hence  this  contrast  would  be  still  more  palpable, 
and, left  to  themselves,  a  time  would  come  when  it  would  be 
obvious  that  the  existing  population  had  nothing  to  do  with 
these  structures,  for  the  mixed  blood  would  have  disappeared, 
and  there  would  be  only  the  simple,  unadulterated  "native 
American,"  as  discovered  by  the  Spaniards  three  centuries 
ago.  And  we  have  only  to  apply  this  to  the  antiquities  of 
America  to  understand  its  history,  at  all  events,  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  those  half-buried  monuments  so  frequently 
found  on  its  surface.  Adventurers,  often,  doubtless,  ship- 
wrecked mariners,  were  cast  upon  the  coasts  of  America.  Pos- 
sibly in  some  cases  before  Rome  was  founded,  or  Babylon 
il  self  was  the  mighty  capital  of  a  still  more  mighty  empire, 
these  enterprising  or  unfortunate  men  found  themselves  un 
disputed  sovereigns  of  the  New  "World.  We  know  that 
Northmen  found  their  way  here  in  the  eighth  century,  and 
doubtless  they  were  preceded  at  intervals  by  numerous  other 
Caucasians.    Settling  in  some  localities  they  reigned  undisputed 


THE     HUMAN     CEEATION.  47 

masters,  built  cities,  organized  governments,  framed  laws,  and 
laid  the  foundations  of  a  civilized  society.  But  intermarry- 
ing with  the  natives,  they  were  swallowed  up  by  mongrelism, 
and,  in  obedience  to  an  immutable  law  of  physical  life,  doomed 
to  perish,  and  at  a  given  period,the  white  blood  extinct,  there 
remained  nothing  to  denote  its  former  existence,  except  tha 
half-buried  palaces  and  ruined  monuments  yet  to  be  traced 
over  large  portions  of  the  continent.  The  Toltecs,  Aztecs, 
etc.,  are  simply  the  remnants  of  these  extinct  Caucasians,  just 
as  the  present  population,  if  left  alone  in  Mexico,  the  latest 
portion  of  it,  with  Caucasian  blood,  would  be  the  ruling 
force,  and  perhaps  retain  somewhat  or  some  portion  of  the 
Sjianish  habitudes. 

The  pure  native  mind  is  capable  of  a  certain  development, 
but  that  is  fixed  and  determinate,  and  beyond  which  it  can  no 
more  progress  than  it  can  alter  the  color  of  its  skin  or  the  form 
of  its  brain.  Powhatan's  empire  in  Virginia  was  undoubtedly 
aboriginal  and  probably  called  out  the  utmost  resources  and 
reached  the  utmost  limit  of  the  Indian  mind.  The  Indian  has, 
and  does  manifest  to  a  certain  extent,  a  capacity  of  mental  action, 
but  this  is  too  feeble  and  limited  to  make  a  permanent  impres- 
sion on  the  physical  agents  that  surround  him,  and  therefore  he 
can  have  no  history,  for  there  are  no  materials — nothing  to 
record.  The  term,  therefore,  "Indian  antiquities,"  is  a  mis- 
nomer and  the  great  congressional  enterprise  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Mr.  Schoolcraft  an  obvious  absurdity. 

The  Polar  or  Esquimaux  race  has  been  least  known  of  all, 
and  prior  to  the  explorations  of  that  true  hero  and  true  son  of 
science,  the  late  Dr.  Kane,  was  scarcely  known  except  in  name. 
It  is  both  Asiatic  and  American,  but  which  continent  is  its 
birth-place  is  matter  of  doubt.  The  facilities  for  passing  from 
one  continent  to  the  other  were  doubtless  much  greater  at 
eome  former  period  than  at  present,  and  not  only  men  but  ani- 


i8  THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

mala  may  have  done  so  with  ease.  Except  a  few  well-known 
species  of  animals  and  vegetables,  which  are  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  Caucasian,  and  which  have  accompanied 
him  in  all  his  migrations,  each  species  has  its  own  centre  of 
existence,  beyond  or  outside  of  which  it  is  limited  to  a  deter- 
minate existence.  The  Arctic  animals  are  quite  numerous,  and 
differ  widely  from  all  others,  but  they  are  absolutely  the  same 
in  Asia  as  in  America,  and  therefore  must  have  passed  from 
one  to  the  other,  and  man,  however  subordinate  or  inferior 
to  other  races  endowed  by  nature  with  ample  powers  of  loco- 
motion and  migration,  could  meet  with  only  trifling  obstacles 
in  passing  from  one  continent  to  the  other.  This  race, though 
thus  far  of  little  or  no  importance,  is  doubtless  superior  to  the 
Negro,  for  the  necessities  of  its  existence,  the  terrible  strug- 
gle for  very  life  in  those  bleak  and  desolate  regions,  infer  the 
possession  of  powers  superior  to  those  of  a  race  whose  centre 
of  life  is  in  the  fertile  and  luxuriant  tropics,  where  nature  pro- 
duces spontaneously,  and  where  the  idle  and  sensual  Negro 
only  needs  to  gather  these  products  to  exist  and  multiply  his 
kind. 

Finally,  we  have  the  Negro — last  and  least,  the  lowest  in 
the  scale  but  possibly  the  first  in  the  order  of  Creation,  for 
there  are  many  reasons  in  the  nature  and  structure  of  things 
that  indicate,  if  they  do  not  altogether  warrant,  the  inference 
that  the  Negro  was  first  and  the  Caucasian  latest  in  the  pro- 
gramme or  order  of  Creation.  The  typical,  woolly-haired  Ne- 
gro may  have  been  created  in  tropical  Asia,  and  carried  thence 
to  Africa,  as  in  modern  times  he  has  been  carried  to  tropical 
America.  Like  other  subordinate  races,  it  never  migrates,  but 
the  extensive  traces  of  its  former  existence  in  Asia  show  be- 
yond doubt  that  that  was  either  its  primal  home,  or  that  it 
had  been  carried  there  by  the  Caucasian  long  anterior  to  the 
historic  era     But  it  is  now  found  in  its  pure  state  or  specifio 


THE    HUMAN    CBEATION.  49 

form  in  Africa  alone,  and  even  here  large  portions  of  it  have 
undergone  extensive  adulteration.  Our  knowledge  of  Africa  ia 
very  limited  and  consequently  very  imperfect.  African  travel- 
ers, explorers,  missionaries,  etc.,  ignorant  of  the  ethnology, 
of  the  physiology,  of  the  true  nature  of  the  Negro,  and  more- 
over, bitten  by  modern  philanthropy,  a  disease  more  loathsome 
and  fatal  to  the  moral  than  small-pox  or  plague  to  the  physical 
nature,  have  been  bewildered,  and  perverted,  and  rendered 
unfit  for  truthful  observation  or  usefid  discovery  before  they 
set  foot  on  its  soil  or  felt  a  single  flush  of  its  burning  sun. 
With  the  monstrous  conception  that  the  Negro  was  a  being 
like  themselves,  with  the  same  instincts,  wants,  etc.,  and  the 
same  (latent)  mental  capacities,  all  they  saw,  felt,  or  reasoned 
upon  in  Africa  was  seen  through  this  false  medium,  and 
therefore  of  little  or  no  value.  Thus  Earth  and  Livingston 
encountering  a  mongrel  tribe  or  community,  with,  of  course,  a 
certain  degree  or  extent  of  civilization — the  result  of  Cau- 
casian inervation,  or  perhaps  the  remains  of  a  former  pure 
white  population,  note  it  down  and  spread  it  before  the  world 
as  evidence  of  Negro  capacity,  and  an  indication  of  the  future 
progress  of  the  race !  Myriads  and  countless  myriads  of  white 
men  have  lived  and  died  on  the  soil  of  Africa ;  vast  populations 
and  entire  nations  have  emigrated  to  that  continent.  At  one 
time  there  were  half  a  million  of  Christians  (white)  and  forty 
thousand  inmates  of  religious  houses  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
alone,  while  three  hundred  Christian  Bishops  assembled  at 
Carthage,  and  it  will  be  a  reasonable  assumption  to  say  that 
since  the  Christian  era,  there  have  been  five  hundred  millions 
of  whites  in  Africa.  What  has  become  of  them  ?  They  have 
not  emigrated — have  not  been  slaughtered  in  battle,  nor  de- 
stroyed by  pestilence,  nor  devoured  by  famine,  and  yet  these 
countless  hosts,  these  innumerable  millions,  these  Christian 
devotees   and  holy  bishops  have  all   disappeared,  as  utterly 

3 


50  THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

perished  as  if  the  earth  had  opened  and  swallowed  them  np. 
With  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire,  civilization  receded 
from  Africa,  and  the  white  population  were  gradually  swal- 
lowed up  by  mongrelism.  The  Negro, being  the  predominant 
element, absorbed, or  rather  annihilated,  the  lesser  one,  and  the 
result  is  now  seen  in  numerous,  almost  countless,  mixed  hybrid 
or  mongrel  tribes  and  populations  spread  all  over  that  conti- 
nent. It  is  certainly  possible,  indeed  probable,  that  there  are  two 
or  three,  or  more  species  of  men,  closely  approximating,  it  is 
true,  nevertheless  specifically  different  from  the  woolly -haired 
or  typical  Negro.  One  of  these  (the  Hottentots  or  Bushmen) 
with  the  true  negro  features  but  of  dirty  yellow  color,  it  would 
seem  almost  certain  must  be  a  separate  species ;  but  until  some 
one  better  qualified  to  judge,  than  those  hitherto  relied  on, 
has  investigated  this  subject,  it  is  only  safe  to  assume  but  a 
single  species,  and  that  the  other  and  numerous  populations 
of  Africa,  however  resembling  or  approximating  to  the  typical 
Negro,  are  hybrids  and  mongrels,  the  effete  and  expiring  re- 
mains of  the  mighty  populations  and  imposing  civilizations 
that  once  flourished  upon  its  soil.  There  may  be  also  other 
species  besides  the  Mongol  in  Asia,  and  beside  the  Malay  in 
Oceanica,  and  it  is  quite  probable  that  some  species  have 
totally  perished.  But  it  is  certain  that  those  thus  briefly  dis- 
cussed now  exist;  that  their  location,  their  history,  as  far  as 
they  can  be  said  to  have  a  history,  their  physical  qualities  and 
mental  condition,  in  short,  their  specific  characters,  are  plainly 
marked  and  well  understood.  Nevertheless,  and  though  all 
this  belongs  to  the  domain  of  fact,  and  it  is  as  absurd  to  ques- 
tion it  as  it  would  be  to  question  the  existence  of  diverse  spe- 
cies in  any  of  the  genera  or  families  of  the  animal  creation,  the 
"  world"  generally  holds  to  the  notion  of  a  single  human  race. 
It  is  not  designed  to  expressly  argue  this  point,  for,  to  the 
American  mind,  it  is  so  obvious,  if  not  self-evident,  that  the 


THE     IIUMAW     CREATION.  51 

Human  Creation  is  composed  of  diverse  species,  that  argument 
is  misplaced  if  not  absolutely  absurd.  The  European  people 
?arely  see  the  Negro  or  other  species  of  men,  and  therefore  the 
notion  of  a  single  human  race  or  species  (with  them)  is  natural 
enough,  indeed  a  mental  necessity.  Ethnologists — men  of 
vast  erudition,  of  noble  intellect  and  honest  and  conscientious 
intentions — have  devoted  their  powers  to  this  subject,  and 
volume  upon  volume  has  been  published  to  demonstrate  the 
assumption  of  a  single  race.  Buffon,  Blumenbach,  Tiedemann, 
Prichard,  even  Cuvier  himself,  have  given  in  their  adherence 
to  this  dogma,  or  rather  it  should  be  said  have  set  out  with  the 
assumption  of  a  single  race  and  collected  a  vast  amount  of 
material — of  fact  or  presumed  fact — to  demonstrate  its  sup- 
posed truth.  Nor  is  it  an  easy  matter  to  explode  their  sophis- 
tries or  to  disprove  their  assumptions.  With  great  and  admitted 
claims  to  scientific  acquirement  and  powers  of  reasoning,  they 
combine  undoubted  honesty  of  intention  and  seemingly  careful 
and  patient  investigation,  and  the  amount  or  extent  of  evi- 
dence adduced,  the  elaborate  and  mighty  array  of  fact,  of 
learned  and  imposing  authority  appealed  to,  and  the  fatiguing 
if  not  unwarrantable  argument  put  forward,  made  it,  and  still 
make  it  difficult  to  reply  to  them  or  to  disprove  their  assump- 
tions. Any  question,  no  matter  what  its  nature,  or  however 
deficient  in  the  elements  of  truth,  still  admits  of  argument,  and 
falsehood  may  often  lead  astray  the  reason  even  when  the 
judgment  itself  is  convinced  to  the  contrary.  And  these  Eu- 
ropean advocates  of  the  dogma  of  a  single  race  have  such  a 
boundless  field  for  discussion,  can  so  bewilder  and  fatigue  the 
reason  as  well  as  pervert  the  imagination  by  their  plausible 
arguments,  drawn  from  the  analysis  of  animal  life,  that  it  is 
not  wonderful  they  should  lead  astray  the  popular  mind ;  nor 
is  it  surprising  that  those  among  us  claiming  to  be  men  of 
science  should  bow  to  their  authority,  for  though  common  sense 


52  THE     HUMAN    CREATION. 

rejects  their  arguments,  there  are  few  of  sufficient  mental  inde« 
pendence  to  withstand  that  authority,  when  hacked  up  by 
such  an  imposing  array  of  distinguished  names.  But  the 
strong  common  sense  that  distinguishes  our  people  will  not 
be,  indeed,  cannot  be,  deceived  on  this  subject.  The  American 
or  the  Southern  knows  that  the  Negro  is  a  Negro,  and  is  not 
a  Caucasian,  just  as  clearly,  absolutely  and  unmistakably  as  he 
knows  that  black  is  black  and  is  not  white,  that  a  man  is  a 
man  and  is  not  a  woman — that  a  pigeon  is  a  pigeon  and  is  not 
a  robin — or  a  shad  a  shad  and  not  a  salmon.  He  sees  negro 
parents  have  negro  offspring;  that  Indians  have  Indian  off- 
spring ;  and  that  whites  have  white  offspring,  "  each  after  its 
kind,"  with  the  same  regularity,  uniformity  and  perfect  cer- 
tainty that  is  witnessed  in  all  other  forms  of  existence.  There 
is  not  a  white  man  or  woman  in  the  Union  who,  if  told  of 
such  a  thing  as  white  parents  with  negro  offspring,  or  negroes 
with  white  offspring,  would  believe  it,  even  if  sworn  to  by  a 
million  of  witnesses.  Such  a  belief  or  such  a  conception  would 
be  as  monstrous,  and  indeed  impossible,  as  to  suppose  that 
robins  had  begotten  pigeons  or  horses  asses.  And  the  con- 
stant witnessing  of  this — this  undeviating  and  perpetual  order 
in  the  economy  of  animal  life,  demonstrates  the  specific  char- 
acter of  the  Negro  beyond  doubt  or  possible  mistake.  Irish- 
men, Germans,  Frenchmen,  etc.,  come  here,  settle  down,  be- 
come citizens,  and  their  offspring  born  and  raised  on  American 
soil  differ  in  no  appreciable  or  perceptible  manner  from  other 
Americans.  But  Negroes  may  have  been  brought  here  three 
centuries  ago,  and  their  offspring  of  to-day  is  exactly  as  it  was 
then,  as  absolutely  and  specifically  unlike  the  American  as 
when  the  race  first  touched  the  soil  and  first  breathed  the  air 
of  the  New  World.  It  is  not  intended,  as  already  observed, 
to  argue  this  matter,  for  it  is  a  palpable  and  unavoidable  fact 
that  Negroes  are  a  separate  species ;  and  though  in  succeeding 


THE     HUMAN     CKEATIOK,  58 

chapters  of  this  "work  the  specific  qualities  are  examined  in 
detail,  these  detailed  demonstrations  are  merely  designed  to 
present  the  physical  differences  in  order  to  determine  the 
moral  relations,  and  not  by  any  means  to  demonstrate  a  fact 
always  palpable  to  the  senses.  Even  those  foolish  people,  dis- 
posed to  pervert  terms  or  play  upon  words — to  admit  the  fact, 
tttus  palpable,  but  ready  to  confound  and  distort  the  reason 
by  the  application  or  use  of  false  terms,  cannot  avoid  the  inevi- 
table conclusion  of  distinct  species.  To  conceal  or  keep  out 
of  sight  this  truth,  some  have  thus  admitted  these  every  day 
se?n  and  unmistakable  specific  differences  in  dividing  races,  but 
a  silly  as  strange  perversity  has  prompted  them  to  use  the  term 
"pjrmanent  varieties"  instead  of  "species,"  as  if  white  and  black 
were  variations  and  not  specialties.  It  is  a  fact,  an  existing, 
unalterable,  demonstrable,  and  unmistakable  fact,  that  the 
Ke^ro  is  specifically  different  from  ourselves — a  fact  uniform 
anc  invariable,  which  has  accompanied  each  generation,  and 
uncer  every  condition  of  circumstances,  of  climate,  social  con- 
ditbn,  education,  time  and  accident,  from  the  landing  at  James- 
town to  the  present  day.  The  Naturalist,  reasoning  alone  on 
this  basis  of  fact,  says,  that  which  has  been  uniform  and  undi- 
viatng  for  three  hundred  years,  in  all  kinds  of  climate  and 
undrr  all  kinds  of  circumstances,  in  a  state  of  "  freedom"  or 
condition  of  "  slavery,"  under  the  burning  Equator  and  amid 
the  mows  of  Canada,  without  change  or  symptom  of  change, 
mus,  have  been  thus  three  thousand  years  ago.  And  he  rea- 
sons truly,  for  the  excavations  of  Champolion  and  others  de- 
monstrate the  specific  character  of  this  race  four  thousand 
years  ago,  with  as  absolute  and  unmistakable  certainty  as  it  is 
now  actually  demonstrated  to  the  external  sense  of  the  present 
gena-ation.  And  the  Naturalist,  reasoning  still  further  on  tin's 
basil  of  fact,  says,  "that  which  has  existed  four  thousand 
years,  without  the  slightest  change  or  modification,  which  in 


54  THE    HUMAN     CREATION. 

all  kinds  of  climate  ani  under  every  condition  of  circumstances 
preserves  its  integrity  and  transmits,  in  the  regular  and  nor- 
mal order,  to  each  succeeding  generation  the  exact  and  com- 
plete type  of  itself,  must  have  heen  thus  at  the  beginning,  and 
when  the  existing  order  was  first  called  into  being  by  the 
Almighty  Creator."     And  contemplating  the  subject  from  this 
stand-point,  and  reasoning  from  analogy,  or  exactly  as  we  do 
in  respect  to  other  and  all  other  forms  of  existence,  the  conclu- 
sion is   irresistible   and  unavoidable  that  the  several  human 
races  or  species  originsdly  came  into  being  exactly  as  they  now 
exist,  as  we  know  they  have  existed  through  all  human  experi- 
ence, and  without  a  re-creation,  must  continue  to  exist  so  long 
as  the  world  itself  lasts,  or  the  existing  order  remains.     But  a 
large  portion  of  the  "  world"  believe  that  the  Bible  teacnes 
the  descent  of  all  mankind  from  a  single  pair,  and  consequently 
that  there  must  have  been  a  supernatural  interposition  at  some 
subsequent  period,  which  changed  the  human  creation  intc  its 
actual  and  existing  form  of  being.     And  if  there  has  beet,  at 
any  time  a  special  revelation  made  to  man,  and  supernatural 
interposition  in  regard  to  other  things,  then  this  alteration  or 
re-creation  of  separate  species  is  no  more  irrational  or  improb- 
able than  other  things  pertaining  to  that  revelation,  and  -which 
are  universally  assented  to  by  the  religious  world.     A  revela- 
tion is  necessarily  supernatural — that  is,  in  direct  contradhtion 
to  the  normal  order ;  but  it  may  be  said  that  the  Creator  is 
not  the  slave  of  His  own  laws,  and  in  His  immaculate  wiidom 
and  boundless  power  might  see  fit  to  change  the  order  o?  the 
human  creation;  and  certainly  the  same  Almighty  power  vhich 
took  the  Hebrews  over  the  Red  Sea  on  dry  land,  that  saTed  a 
pair  of  all  living  things  in  the  ark  of  Noah,  or  dispersec  the 
builders  of  Babel,  could,  with  equal  ease,  reform,  or  re-create 
human  life,  and  in  future  ordain  that  instead  of  one  there 
should  be  several  species  of  men.     This  is  a  matter,  however, 


THE    HUMATf    CREATION.  55 

in  regard  to  which  the  author  does  not  assume  to  decide,  to 
question,  to  venture  an  opinion,  or  even  to  hazard  a  conjecture. 
It  is  clearly  and  absolutely  beyond  the  reach  of  human  intelli- 
gence, and  therefore  not  within  the  province  of  legitimate 
enquiry.  The  Almighty  has,  in  His  infinite  wisdom  and  bound- 
less beneficence,  hidden  from  us  many  tilings,  a  knowledge  of 
which  would  doubtless  injure  us,  and  the  origin  of  the  hmnan 
races  belongs  to  this  catalogue.  Men  may  labor  to  investigate 
it,  to  tear  aside  the  veil  the  Creator  has  drawn  about  it,  to 
unlock  the  mystery  in  which  He  has  shrouded  it,  and  after  mil- 
lions of  years  thus  appropriated,  come  back  to  the  starting- 
point,  the  simple,  palpable,  unavoidable  truth.  They  exist, 
but  why  or  wherefore,  whither  they  came  or  whence  they  go, 
is  beyond  the  range  of  human  intelligence.  We  only  know, 
and  are  only  permitted  to  know,  that  the  several  species  now 
known  to  exist  have  been  exactly  as  at  present  in  their  phys- 
ical natures  and  intellectual  capacities,  through  all  human  ex- 
perience and  without  a  supernatural  interposition  or  re-creation, 
must  continue  thus  through  countless  ages,  and  as  long  as  the 
existing  order  of  creation  itself  continues.  This  we  know 
beyond  doubt  or  possible  mistake,  while,  whether  it  was  thus 
at  the  beginnmg,  or  changed  by  a  supernatural  interposition 
at  some  subsequent  period,  is  now,  and  always  must  be,  left  to 
conjecture.  Those  who  interpret  the  Book  of  Genesis,  or  who 
believe  that  the  Book  of  Genesis  teaches  the  origin  of  the  hu- 
man family  from  a  single  pair,  will,,  of  course  believe  that  the 
Creator  subsequently  changed  them  into  their  present  form, 
while  those  who  do  not  thus  interpret  the  Bible  will  believe, 
with  equal  confidence  perhaps,  that  they  were  created  thus  at 
the  beginning.  It  is  not,  nor  could  it  be  of  the  slightest  ben- 
efit to  us  to  really  and  truly  know  the  truth  of  this  matter. 
All  that  is  essential  to  our  welfare  we  already  know,  or  may 
know,  if  we  properly  apply  the  faculties  with  which  the  Cre- 


56  THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

ator  has  so  beneficently  endowed  us.  "We  only  need  to  apply 
these  faculties — to  investigate  the  question — to  study  the  dif- 
ferences existing  among  the  general  species  of  men,  and  com- 
pare their  natures  and  capabilities  with  our  own,  to  under- 
stand our  true  relations  with  them,  and  thus  to  secure  our 
own  happiness  as  well  as  their  well-being,  when  placed  in  jux- 
taposition with  them.  All  this  is  so  obvious,  and  the  remote 
and  abstract  question  of  origin  so  hypothetical  and  entirely 
non-essential,  that  it  seems  impossible  that  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious men  would  ever  seek  to  raise  an  issue  on  it,  or  that 
they  would  overlook  the  great  practical  duties  involved  in  the 
question  and  engage  in  a  visionary  and  unprofitable  discussion 
about  that  of  which  they  neither  do  nor  can  know  anything 
whatever.  Nevertheless,  some  few  persons  seem  to  be  especi- 
ally desirous  to  provoke  an  issue  on  this  matter,  not  only  with 
science  but  with  common  sense,  and  a  certain  reverend  and 
rather  distinguished  gentleman  has  publicly  and  repeatedly  de- 
clared "that  the  doctrine  of  a  single  human  race  underlies  the 
whole  fabric  of  religious  belief,  and  if  it  is  rejected,  Christianity 
will  be  lost  to  mankind !"  What  miserable  folly,  if  nothing 
worse,  is  this  !  It  is  a  virtual  declaration  that  we  must  believo 
or  pretend  to  believe,  what  we  know  to  be  a  lie,  in  order  to 
preserve  what  we  believe  to  be  a  truth.  The  existence  of  differ- 
ent species  of  men  belongs  to  the  category  of  physical  fact — a 
thing  subject  to  the  decision  of  the  senses,  and  belief  neither 
has  nor  can  have  anything  to  do  with  the  matter.  It  is  true, 
the  reverend  gentleman  in  question  may  shut  his  eyes  and  re- 
main in  utter  ignorance  of  the  fact,  or  rather  of  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  fact,  and  while  thus  ignorant,  may  believe,  or  pre- 
tend to  believe,  that  widely  different  things  constitute  the  same 
thing — that  white  and  black  are  identical  —  that  white 
parents  had  at  some  remote  time  and  in  some  strange  and 
unaccountable  manner  given  birth  to  Negro  c  ffspring ;  but 


THE     HUMAN     CKEAIION.  57 

what  right  has  he  to  say,  to  those  who  are  conscious  of  tho 
fact  of  different  species,  and  who  knotc,  moreover,  that  negroes 
could  no  more  originate  from  white  parentage  than  they  could 
from  dogs  or  cats,  -that  they  shall  stultify  themselves  and 
dishonestly  pretend  to  believe  otherwise,  on  pain  of  eternal 
reprobation,  or  what  he  doubtless  considers  such,  the  loss  of 
Christianity  to  the  world  ?  It  is  not  the  desire  of  the  writer  to 
either  reconcile  the  merits  of  science  with  those  peculiar  inter- 
pretations of  the  Bible,  or  to  exhibit  any  contradictions  with 
those  interpretations.  An  undoubting  believer  himself  in  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christianity,  he  finds  no  difficulty  whatever 
in  this  respect,  and  would  desire  to  simply  state  the  facts  or 
what  he  knows  to  be  truth,  and  leave  the  reader  to  form  his 
own  conclusions.  But  the  seemingly  predetermined  design  of 
some  to  make  an  issue  on  this  matter,  to  appeal  to  a  supposed 
popular  bigotry  and  fanaticism  in  order  to  conceal  the  most 
vital  and  most  stupendous  truth  of  modern  times — a  truth  un- 
derlying all  our  sectional  difficulties,  and  which,  truly  appre- 
hended by  the  mind  of  the  masses,  will  instantly  explode  those 
difficulties — renders  it  an  imperative  duty  to  expose  the  folly 
and  sophistry  of  those  who  strive  to  keep  it  out  of  sight. 
They  assume  that  the  Bible  teaches  the  origin  of  all  mankind 
from  a  single  pair — that  the  Mongol,  Indian,  Negro,  etc.,  with 
the  same  origin,  have  the  same  nature  as  the  white  man,  and 
consequently  have  the  same  natural  rights,  and  that  we  owe 
to  them  the  same  duties  that  we  owe  to  ourselves  or  to  our  own 
race.  And,  moreover,  they  proclaim  a  belief  in  this  assump- 
tion as  essential  to  salvation,  or,  in  other  words,  that  if  it  be 
rejected  Christianity  will  disappear  from  the  world.  It  need 
not  be  repeated  that  the  writer  will  not  condescend  to  argue  a 
self-evident,  actually  existing,  every-day  palpable  and  unavoid- 
able physical  fact,  or  insult  the  reader's  understanding  by  pre- 
senting proofs  to  show  that  the  Negro  is  specifically  different 

3* 


58  THE     HUMAJf     CREATION. 

from  himself— that  is  a  matter  beyond  the  province  of  ra- 
tional discussion,  and  entirely  within  the  domain  of  the  senses; 
yet,  as  already  observed,  in  the  subsequent  chapters  of  this 
work  the  extent  of  these  differences  separating  whites  and 
blacks  will  be  demonstrated,  their  physical  differences  and 
approximations  shown,  in  order  to  determine  their  moral 
relations  and  social  adaptations.  But  the  assumption  that 
belief  in  the  dogma  of  a  single  human  race  or  species  is  vital 
to  the  preservation  of  Christianity  needs  to  be  exposed,  as 
it  is  in  reality  as  monstrous  in  morals  as  stupid  and  absurd  in 
fact.  We  cannot  believe  that  which  we  know  to  be  untrue, 
and  to  affect  such  belief,  however  good  the  motive  may  seem, 
must  necessarily  debauch  and  demoralize  the  whole  moral 
structure.  There  are  many  things — such  as  the  belief  in  the 
doctrine  of  election,  original  sin,  of  justification  by  faith, 
that  admit  of  belief — honest,  earnest,  undoubting  belief — for 
they  are  abstractions  and  purely  matters  of  faith  that  can  never 
be  brought  to  the  test  of  physical  demonstration,  or  to  the 
standard  of  material  fact,  but  the  question  of  race — the  fact  of 
distinct  races  or  rather  the  existence  of  species  of  Cauca- 
sian, Mongols,  Negroes,  etc.,  are  physical  facts,  subject  to  the 
senses,  and  it  is  beyond  the  control  of  the  will  to  refuse  assent 
to  their  actual  presence.  Can  a  man,  by  taking  thought,  add 
a  cubit  to  his  stature  ?  Can  he  believe  himself  something  else 
■ — a  woman,  a  dog,  or  that  he  does  not  exist — that  black  is 
white,  or  that  red  is  yellow,  or  that  the  Negro  is  a  white  man? 
It  is  possible  to  deceive  and  delude  ourselves,  and  believe  or 
think  that  we  believe  many  things  which  our  interest,  our 
prejudices,  and  our  caprices  prompt  us  to  believe,  but  they 
must  be  things  of  an  abstract  nature,  where  there  are  no  phys- 
ical tests  to  embarrass  us  or  to  compel  the  will  to  bow  to  that 
fixed  and  immutable  standard  of  truth  which  the  Eternal  has 
planted  in  the  very  heart  of  things,  and  which  otherwise  the 


THE     HUMAN    CREATION.  59 

laws  of  the  mental  organism  absolutely  foi'ce  us  to  recognize. 
But  the  existence  of  distinct  species  of  men  does  not  belong  to 
this  category.  It  is  fact,  a  palpable,  immediate,  demonstrable 
and  unescapable  fact.  We  know,  and  we  cannot  avoid  know- 
ing, that  the  negro  is  a  negro  and  is  not  a  white  man,  and 
therefore  we  cannot  believe,  however  much  we  may  strive  to 
do  so,  that  he  is  the  same  being  that  we  are,  or  in  other  words, 
that  all  mankind  constitute  a  single  race  or  species.  All  that 
is  possible  or  permissible  is  to  make  bars  and  hypocrites  of 
ourselves — to  pretend  to  believe  in  a  thing  that  we  do  not  and 
cannot  believe  in — to  force  this  hypocrisy  and  pretended  belief 
on  others  who  may  happen  to  have  confidence  in  our  honesty 
and  respect  for  our  ability;  and  finally, as  a  salve  for  our  out- 
raged conscience,  to  deceive  ourselves  with  the  notion  that  our 
motives  are  good,  and  the  end  justifies  the  means. 

But  the  advocates  of  the  European  theory  of  a  single  race 
are  faced  by  other  difficulties,  which  are  quite  as  unavoid- 
able as  those  thus  briefly  glanced  at.  They  demand  that  the 
world  shall  believe  in  the  dogma  of  a  single  race,  but  not  one 
among  them  will  act  upon  it  in  practice,  or  convince  others  of 
their  sincerity  by  living  up  to  their  avowed  belief.  If  the  Ne- 
gro had  descended  from  the  same  parentage,  or,  except  in 
color  merely,  was  the  same  being  as  ourselves,  then  there 
could  be  no  reason  for  refusing  to  amalgamate  with  him  as  with 
the  several  branches  of  our  race.  But  on  the  contrary,  the 
reverend  and  distinguished  gentleman  who  has  ventured  to 
declare  that  the  belief  that  the  Negro  is  a  being  like  ourselves, 
is  essential  to  Christianity,  would  infinitely  prefer  the  death  of 
his  daughter  to  that  of  marriage  with  the  most  accomplished 
and  most  pious  Negro  in  existence !  If  he  believed  in  his  own 
assertions  in  regard  to  this  matter,  then  it  would  be  his  first 
and  most  imperative  duty,  as  a  Christian  minister,  to  set  an 
example  to  others,  to  labor  night  and  day  to  elevate  this  (in 


60  THE     HUMAN     CREATION. 

that  3ase)  wronged  and  outraged  race — indeed,  to  suffer  every 
personal  inconvenience,  even  martyrdom  itself,  in  the  per- 
ibrmance  of  a  duty  so  obvious  and  necessary.  And  when 
this  theory  was  at  last  reduced  to  practice,  and  all  the  existing 
distinctions  and  "  prejudices"  against  the  Negro  were  obliter- 
ated, and  the  four  millions  of  Negroes  amalgamated  with  the 
whites,  society  would  be  rewarded  by  the  increased  morality 
and  purity  that  would  follow  an  act  of  such  transcendent  jus- 
tice. But  will  any  one  believe  in  such  a  result — that,  reducing 
to  practice  the  belief,  or  pretended  belief  of  a  single  race,  will 
or  would  benefit  American  society  ?  No,  indeed;  on  the  con- 
trary, every  one  Jcnoios — even  the  wildest  and  most  perverted 
abolitionist  knows — that  to  reduce  this  dogma  to  practice,  to 
honestly  five  out  this  pretended  belief,  to  affiliate  with  these 
negroes,  would  result  in  the  absolute  destruction  of  American 
society.  Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  more  certain  than  the 
hypocrisy  of  those  who  pretend  to  believe  in  this  single-race 
doctrine,  for  it  need  not  be  repeated,  that  they  do  not  and  can- 
not believe  in  it  in  reality.  But  why  should  they  deem  this 
absurd  doctrine  essential  to  their  interpretation  of  the  Bible  ? 
That  the  Almighty  Creator  subsequently  changed  the  order 
of  the  human  creation  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the  univer- 
sally received  history  of  the  Christian  Revelation.  All  the 
Christian  sects  of  the  day  admit  the  doctrine  of  miracles,  or 
supernatural  interposition,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Apostles, 
and  the  largest  of  all  (the  Roman  Catholics)  credit  this  inter- 
position at  the  present  day,  and  therefore  those  ready  to  re- 
cognize it  in  such  numerous  instances,  many,  too,  of  relatively 
trifling  importance,  but,  determined  to  reject  it  in  this  matter 
of  races,  are  only  imitating  their  brethren  of  old,  and  straining 
at  gnats  while  swallowing  camels  with  the  greatest  ease. 
To  many  persons  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith 
carry  with  them  innate  and  irresistible  proof  of  their  divine 


THE     nUMAN     CKEATIOX.  61 

origin,  but  the  professional  teachers  of  theology  depend  mainly 
upon  supernatural  interposition  to  convince  the  world  of  its 
truth,  and  yet  by  a  strange  and  unaccountable  perversity, 
some  of  them  would  reject  it  in  the  most  important,  or,  at  all 
events  one  of  the  most  important  instances  in  which  it  ever 
did  or  ever  could  occur.  But  will  the  sensible  and  really  con- 
scientious Christian  priest  or  layman  venture  to  persist  in 
forcing  this  assumption,  this  palpable,  demonstrable,  unmis- 
takable falsehood,  that  the  single  race-dogma  is  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  Christianity,  upon  the  public  ?  If  he  does, 
and  if  it  is  accepted  by  those  who  look  upon  him  as  a  teacher, 
then  it  is  certain  that  he  will  inflict  infinite  mischief  on  the 
cause  of  Christianity.  To  assume  that  all  mankind  have  white 
skins,  or  straight  hair,  or  any  other  specific  feature  of  our  own 
race,  involves  no  greater  absurdity,  indeed,  involves  the  exact 
absurdity,  that  the  assumption  of  a  single  human  species  does 
If  it  were  assumed  that  we  must  stultify  ourselves,  and  believe, 
or  pretend  to  believe,  that  all  mankind  have  white  skins,  or 
Christianity  would  be  lost  to  the  world,  there  is  not  a  single 
man  in  this  Republic  that  would  not  reject  such  an  assumption 
with  scorn  and  contempt.  White  and  black  are,  of  course, 
specialties,  but  no  more  so  than  (as  will  hereafter  be  shown) 
all  the  other  things  that  constitute  the  negro  being,  and 
therefore  the  assumption  put  forward  substantially  and  indeed 
exactly,  is  thus  :  We  must  believe  that  whites,  Indians,  Ne- 
groes, etc.,  have  the  same  color,  or  the  whole  fabric  of 
Christianity  will  be  overthrown  and  lost  to  mankind ! 

But  enough — all  Americans  know — for  they  cannot  avoid 
knowing — that  negroes  are  negroes  and  specifically  different 
from  themselves ;  they  know,  moreover,  that  they  differed  just 
as  widely  when  first  brought  to  this  continent,  and  all  who 
understand  the  simplest  laws  of  organization  know  that  they 
must  always  remain  thus  different  from  ourselves,  and  therefore 


62  THE    HTTMAN    CREATION. 

they  know  that  they  were  made  so  hy  the  act  and  will  of  the 
Almighty  Creator,  while  when,  or  how,  or  why  they  are  thus, 
is  beyond  the  province  of  human  enquiry,  and  of  no  manner 
of  importance  whatever. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

HISTORICAL       OUTLINE. 

The  white  or  Caucasian  is  the  only  historic  race — the 
race  which  is  alone  capable  of  those  mental  manifestations 
which,  written  or  unwritten,  leave  a  permanent  impression 
behind.  What  was  its  first  or  earliest  condition  upon  the 
earth  ?  This,  except  the  meagre  account  given  by  Moses, 
is  unknown,  nor  is  it  of  much  importance  that  it  should  be 
known,  for  though  it  never  was  nor  could  be  savage  or  bar- 
barous, as  these  terms  are  understood  in  modern  times,  still 
its  intellectual  acquisitions  were  doubtless  so  limited  that  if 
really  known  to  us,  they  would  be  of  little  or  no  service. 
Moses  scarcely  attempts  any  description  of  social  life  before 
the  time  of  Abraham,  and  that  then  presented  does  not  differ 
very  materially  from  what  exists  in  the  same  locality  at  the 
present  day.  The  pastoral  habitudes  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  the  sale  of  Joseph  to  the  Ishmaelites  by  his  brethren, 
his  purchase  in  Egypt,  and  sudden  exaltation  at  the  court  of 
the  Egyptian  Monarch,  is  an  almost  exact  counterpart  of 
scenes  witnessed  now,  and  with  little  variation  in  the  same 
lands,  for  the  last  four  thousand  years.  The  starting-point — ■ 
the  locality  where  the  race  first  came  into  being,  is  equally 
hidden  as  the  time  or  period  of  its  creation.  Biblical  writ- 
ers have  usually  supposed  somewhere  in  Asia  Minor,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Euphrates,  while  ethnologists  are  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  the  high  table  lands  of  Thibet  and  Hindoo  Koosh 
may  have  been  the  cradle  of  the  race.     Nor  is  a  knowledge  of 


64  HISTOBICAL     OUTLINE. 

this  material,  or  indeed  of  the  slightest  consequence,  except  as 
an  aid  in  determining  its  true  centre  of  existence — that  is,  its 
physical  adaptation  or  specific  affinities  for  a  certain  locality. 
But  this  is  determined  by  expei'ience ;  and  it  is  demonstrated 
beyond  doubt  that  while  the  elaborate  and  relatively  perfect 
structure  of  the  Caucasian  Man  enables  him  to  resist  all  ex- 
ternal agencies,  and  to  exist  in  all  climates  capable  of  support- 
ing animal  life,  he  can  only  till  the  soil  or  perform  manual 
labor  in  the  temperate  zones.  It  is,  therefore,  immaterial 
when  or  where  he  first  came  into  being,  or  what  was  the 
starting  point  of  the  race — its  centre  of  existence  is  alike  in 
all  the  great  temperate  latitudes  of  Asia,  Africa,  Europe,  and 
America.  The  history  of  the  race  may  be  said  to  be  divided 
into  three  great  cycles  or  distinct  periods ;  all,  however,  con- 
necting with  each  other,  and  doubtless  mainly  resembling  each 
other  in  their  essential  nature,  however  widely  different  in 
their  external  manifestation.  The  first  period,  beginning  with 
its  actual  existence  on  the  earth,  may  be  said  to  terminate  in 
the  era  of  authentic  history.  The  second,  or  historic  era,  may 
be  assumed  as  extending  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Roman 
Empire  by  the  so-called  northern  barbarians,  or,  perhaps,  to 
what  is  usually  termed  the  dark  ages.  And  finally,  there  is 
another  grand  cycle  in  human  destiny,  which,  beginning  with 
the  restoration  of  learning,  comes  down  to  and  includes  our 
own  times.  In  regard  to  the  first,  we  actually  know  little  of 
it,  for,  leaving  out  of  view  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  we  have 
only  a  few  imperfect  glimpses  of  the  actual  life  of  the  count- 
less millions  that  preceded  the  historic  period.  What  little 
knowledge  we  have  depends  on  tradition  and  mythology, 
sometimes,  perhaps,  true  enough,  but  the  greater  portion 
thus  transmitted  to  our  times  we  know  is  false,  because  con- 
ditions are  assumed  that  are  in  contradiction  with  the  laws 
that  govern   our  animal   being.     If  the  race,  however,  was 


HISTORICAL     OUTLINE.  65 

created  in  Asia,  we  know  that  portions  of  it  migrated  to 
Africa,  at  a  very  remote  period ;  indeed,  leaving  the  Bible  ont 
of  view,  the  first  knowledge  we  have  of  its  existence,  or  the 
earliest  traces  of  its  existence,  is  in  Africa.  Caucasian  tribes 
or  communities  entered  the  valley  of  the  Nile  possibly  before 
the  delta  of  the  lower  country  was  sufficiently  hardened  to 
admit  of  cultivation,  as  they  evidently  occupied  localities  con 
siderably  removed  from  the  outlet  of  that  great  river.  These 
early  adventurers  conquered  the  aboriginal  population,  subjected 
them  to  their  control,  compelled  them  to  labor  for  them,  built 
magnificent  cities,  temples,  palaces,  founded  a  mighty  Empire 
and  advanced,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  civilization.  But  wealth 
and  luxury,  with  their  effeminate  consequences,  probably,  too, 
injustice  and  crime  in  the  rulers,  and  certainly,  and  worst 
of  all,  interunion  and  affiliation  with  the  conquered  races, 
tempted  purer  and  hardier  branches  of  the  race  to  invade 
them,  and  indeed  the  delicious  climate  and  fertile  soil  must 
have  always  tempted  Caucasian  tribes  into  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile,  from  the  earliest  periods,  and  whenever  they  felt  them- 
selves strong  enough  to  attack  the  existing  community.  Of 
course  we  can  only  deal  in  conjecture  in  regard  to  this  matter, 
but  it  is  probable  that  numerous  invasions  took  place,  each 
passing  through  much  the  same  course  as  its  predecessors. 
First  came  conquest,  then  the  erection  of  a  mighty  Empire, 
followed  by  a  grand  civilization  ;  then  came  effeminacy,  affilia- 
tion with  the  subject  races,  debauchment  and  debility  inviting 
a  new  conquest  by  pure  Caucasians,  and  they,  in  their  turn, 
going  through  the  same  round  of  glory  and  decay,  of  con- 
quest and  degradation.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  condition 
of  Egypt  when  the  Romans  invaded  it,  and  made  it  a  province 
of  that  great  Empire.  The  effete  remains  of  these  Egyptian 
populations  afterward,  became  known  to  the  Roman  writers, 
and,  to  a  certain  extent,  may  be  said  still  to  exist.     The  great 


66  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

Asiatic  empires  were  doubtless  similar  to  the  Egyptian,  except 
in  respect  to  the  debauchment  of  blood.  The  Assyrians,  Per 
sians,  Chaldeans,  Babylonians,  Hebrews,  etc.,  each  in  their 
turn,  were  conquerors  and  conquered,  masters  and  slaves,  but 
their  downfall,  in  one  essential  respect,  differed  widely  from 
those  of  Africa.  They  were  pure,  unmixed  Caucasians,  for  at 
that  time  the  Mongol  element  was  unknown  in  that  portion  of 
Asia,  and  the  Negro,  except  a  few  household  servants,  never 
existed  on  that  continent.  The  Mongolian  race  was  first 
fcnown  about  five  hundred  years  anterior  to  the  Christian 
Era,  and  whether  originally  it  existed  in  a  more  northern 
region,  or  had  not  reached  a  full  development  as  regards  num- 
bers, can  not  be  known,  on  account  of  our  Hmited  knowledge 
of  the  earth  at  that  time.  The  old  Caucasian  populations  of 
Asia  knew  nothing  of  it,  and  had  no  admixture  of  Mongolic 
blood.  But  all  is  conjecture,  mystery,  doubt  and  uncertainty,  in 
regard  to  these  ancient  and  extinct  Empires.  We  know  that 
they  existed — that  they  were  white  men — beings  like  ourselves 
— our  own  ancestors,  with  the  same  wants,  the  same  instincts, 
in  short,  the  same  nature  that  we  have,  and  therefore,  in  the 
main,  acted,  as  we  do  now.  Of  course  we  call  them  heathens, 
pagans,  savages,  barbarians,  etc.,  but  were  they  thus? 

In  the  modern  times  there  are  no  white  barbarians  or  heath, 
ens.  In  all  modern  history,  wherever  found,  white  men  are 
much  the  same ;  why,  then,  should  it  not  have  been  so  always  ? 
The  fanatic  Jew  called  all  others  gentiles,  savages ;  the  super- 
cilious Greek  called  even  their  Roman  conquerors  barbarians ; 
even  the  manly  and  liberal  Roman  did  not  rise  above  this  fool- 
ish bigotry,  and  not  only  called  the  Gauls,  Britons,  Germans, 
etc.,  barbarians,  but  reduced  them  to  slavery,  as  if  they  were 
inferior  beings.  We  witness  the  same  ignorance  and  folly  in 
our  own  enlightened  times.  The  Englishman  believes  that  the 
English  are  alone  truly  Christian  and  civilized ;  the  French* 


HISTOEICAL     OUTLINE.  67 

man  honestly  believes  that  La  Belle  France  is  at  the  head  of 
modern  civilization ;  even  the  advanced  and  liberal  American 
Democrat  thinks,  and  perhaps  correctly,  that  the  Americans 
alone  are  truly  civilized ;  while  some  among  us  would  exclude 
all  from  the  privilege  of  citizenship  who  happen  to  be  born 
elsewhere,  as  rigidly  as  the  Jew  did  the  uncircumcised  Gentile 
or  the  Moslem  the  dog  of  a  Christian.  Is  not  this  notion  of 
"  outside  barbarians,"  therefore,  the  result  of  ignorance,  or 
foolish  egotism,  without  sense  or  reason  ?  Some  nations  or 
communities  were  doubtless  advanced  more  than  others  in 
ancient  times,  as  at  present,  but  in  the  main  the  race  must 
have  approximated  to  the  same  common  standard  we  wit- 
ness now.  If  it  is  said  that  in  early  times  the  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  frequent  intercourse  prevented  this  general  approxi- 
mation to  a  common  standard  of  enlightenment,  it  may  be  re- 
plied that  the  same  obstacles  would  also  prevent  a  wide  depar- 
ture, and  when  we  know  that  they  had  the  same  wants,  the 
same  instincts,  the  same  tendencies,  etc.,  the  conclusion  seems 
unavoidable  that  no  nation  or  community  could  at  any  time  in 
history  assume,  with  any  justice,  that  others  were  barbarians, 
or  that  they  alone  were  civilized.  The  traditions  and  imper- 
fect knowledge  which  we  have  hitherto  possessed  in  respect 
to  these  long-buried  populations,  may,  perhaps,  be  replaced  by 
that  which  is  almost  or  quite  as  reliable  as  written  history  itself. 
Within  a  few  years  past  a  class  of  men  have  sprung  up  who, 
excavating  the  dead  remains  of  long  forgotten  empires, promise 
revelations  that  will  bring  us  face  to  face  with  the  buried  gen- 
erations that  we  now  only  know  through  the  dim  perspec- 
tive of  uncertain  tradition.  Champolion,  Belzoni,  Rawlinson 
Layard  and  their  companions  have  already  made  discoveries 
in  Egypt  and  Nineveh  that  open  to  our  minds  much  of  the 
social  condition  and  daily  life  of  those  remote  times,  and  future 
explorations,  it  is  probable,  will  give  us  nearly  as  accurate  a 


68  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

knowledge  as  we  have  of  those  embraced  within  the  cycle  of 
authentic  history. 

The  next  great  period  in  the  history  of  the  race — the  his- 
toric era — is  supposed  to  be  entirely  within  the  province  of  real 
knowledge.  It  begins  with  the  history  of  the  Greeks — not 
the  symbolic  but  the  real — that  grand  and  glowing  intellect 
tualism  which,  in  many  respects,  may  be  said  to  equal  the  in 
tellectual  development  of  our  own  times.  The  history  of 
Greece  and  Rome  is  in  truth  the  history  of  the  race,  of  the 
world,  of  mankind.  There  were  cotemporary  nations  of  great 
power,  extent  and  cultivation,  but  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
and  the  subject  or  servile  populations  that  acknowledged  their 
supremacy,  made  up  the  larger  portion  of  the  race.  It  is  true 
the  Persians  were  then  pure  Caucasians,  and,  in  respect  to 
numbers,  largely  surpassed  the  Greeks,  but  while  they  did  not 
differ  much  in  their  general  character,  they  were  on  the  de- 
cline before  the  Greeks  had  reached  their  full  national  devel- 
opment. The  latter  always  referred  to  Egypt  as  the  source 
of  their  civilization,  but  it  is  more  probable  that  they  borrowed 
from  Asia  most  of  those  things  supposed  to  be  of  foreign 
origin.  It  is,  however,  quite  possible  that  the  earliest  civiliza- 
tion was  developed  in  Africa,  that  it  receded  from  thence  to 
Asia,  as  we  know  it  afterwards  did  from  the  latter  to  Europe, 
and  as  we  now  witness  it,  passing  to  America.  But  what  is 
civilization  ?  It  is,  or  it  may  be  defined  as,  the  result  of  intel- 
lectual manifestation.  A  nation  or  people  who  have  most 
deeply  studied  and  understood  the  laws  of  nature  or  the  nature 
of  things,  and  applied  their  knowledge  to  their  own  welfare, 
are  the  most  civilized  or  we  might  say,  in  a  word,  that  the 
nation  that  has  the  most  knowledge  is  the  most  civilized.  The 
Greeks,  certainly,  surpassed  all  cotemporary  nations  in  the 
most  essential  of  all  knowledge,  yet  even  this  seems  to  have 
beon  rather  a  thing  of  chance  than  otherwise.     Political  intel- 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  63 

ligence,  or  a  knowledge  of  men's  social  relations  to  each 
other,  is  the  most  vital  they  can  possess.  The  Greeks  may 
be  said  both  to  have  possessed  this  knowledge  and  to  have 
been  entirely  deficient  in  it.  Athens,  with  thirty  thousand 
citizens  all  recognized  as  political  equals,  was  a  Democracy, 
but  this  so-called  Democracy,  with,  perhaps,  a  hundred  thou- 
sand slaves,  was  a  burlesque  on  a  democratic  government. 
The  Helots  of  Greece,  the  servile  and  subject  population  of 
which  history  gives  no  account,  except  to  refer  to  them,  were 
white  men — men  with  all  the  natural  capacities  of  Socrates, 
Demosthenes,  or  Alcibiades,  but  the  Greek  orators  and  writers 
of  the  day  never  even  seemed  to  imagine  that  they  had 
any  rights  whatever.  They  had  much  the  same  relation  to 
the  Greeks  that  the  Saxons  had  to  the  Normans,  that  the 
Irish  have  to  the  English,  and  yet  with  all  their  political 
enlightenment  and  high  intellectual  development,  the  Greeks 
gave  them  no  rights,  and  treated  them  as  different  and  subor- 
dinate beings.  The  notion,  therefore,  taught  in  our  schools, 
that  the  Greeks  were  the  authors  of  political  liberty,  is  unsound 
— they  neither  practised  nor  understood  liberty,  and  the  exter- 
nal forms  mistaken  for  democracy  had  no  necessary  connection 
with  it.  Aristotle  could  not  form  even  a  conception  of  a  polit- 
ical system  that  did  not  rest  upon  slavery,  and  this  was  doubt- 
less the  general  condition  of  the  Greek  mind.  It  was  merely 
accidental  that  the  Greek  States  assumed  a  democratic  form, 
or  rather  approximated  to  a  democratic  form ;  but  while  they 
were  utterly  ignorant  of  individual  relations  they  certainly  had 
clear  views  of  the  relations  of  states  and  the  duties  that  inde- 
pendent communities  owe  to  each  other.  The  Asiatic  nations 
seem  to  have  had  no  conception  wha  ever  of  these  duties — 
conquest  or  slavery  were  the  only  ilternatives.  A  nation 
must  conquer  or  be  conquered — a  dynasty  must  destroy  all 
others,  or  expect  to  fall  itself — and  the  Asiatic  character  still 


10  HISTORICAL      OUTLINE. 

partakes  largely  of  these  habitudes.  Except,  therefore,  in  the 
mere  externals  or  outward  arrangements  of  political  society, 
the  Greeks  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  done  anything  for  polit- 
ical liberty  or  to  advance  political  science.  The  Romans  did 
more — vastly  more — but  they  had  little  or  no  conception  of 
democracy  or  of  individual  liberty.  The  proud  boast,"  I  am 
a  Roman  citizen,"  unlike  the  idea  of  the  American  democrat, 
partook  of  the  spirit  of  a  British  aristocrat  of  our  own  days, 
claiming  the  privileges  of  his  order.  The  men  who  founded 
the  city  of  Rome,  though  doubtless  fUlibusters  and  adventur- 
ers, perhaps  even  outcasts  of  the  neighboring  populations,  were 
assumed  to  be  superior  to  the  later  emigrants,  and  their  de- 
scendants especially  clahned  exclusive  privileges.  And  when 
Rome  expanded  into  a  mighty  empire  and  ruled  the  world, 
the  senatorial  order  ruled  the  empire — at  all  events,  until 
Caesar  crossed  the  Rubicon  and  seized  the  supreme  power. 
The  change  from  a  republic  to  an  empire  had  little  or  no  bear- 
ing upon  the  question  of  liberty,  for  the  condition  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people  remained  the  same.  Rome  conquered  all, 
or  nearly  all,  the  then  known  world,  for,  except  the  Persians, 
and  perhaps  some  few  populations  in  the  far  North,  the  whole 
Caucasian  race  recognized  the  Romans  as  their  rulers.  The 
Parthians,  so  often  waging  desperate  war  with  the  Romans, 
were  doubtless  a  mixed  people,  something  like  the  modern 
Turks,  and  very  possibly  their  ancestors.  Following  the  rude 
code  of  early  times,  the  Romans  enslaved  the  conquered  popu- 
lations. All  the  prisoners  of  war  were  deemed  to  have  for- 
feited their  lives,  and  were  parceled  out  among  the  Roman 
conquerors,  while  the  rural  populations  were  compelled  to  pay 
tribute  to  the  Roman  civil  officers.  It  is  quite  jirobable  that 
the  Romans  conquered  some  of  the  inferior  races,  but  except 
the  Numidians,  Lybians,  Ethiopians,  etc.,  of  Africa,  Roman 
writers  are  silent  on  the  subject.     It  has  been  said  that  the 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  71 

history  of  the  Romans  was  the  history  of  the  Causasian  race, 
and  that  was  the  history  of  the  world.  This  is  literally  true, 
for  though  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  conquered  populations 
were  the  miserable  barbarians  that  the  Roman  writers  represent 
them  to  have  been,  Rome  was  the  most  advanced  portion  of 
the  race,  and  therefore  the  embodiment  of  its  civilization  and 
intellectual  life.  At  this  moment  Paris  represents  all  France  ; 
and  the  city  of  Rome  bore  a  somewhat  similar  relation  to  the 
populations  that  composed  the  empire,  however  distant  they 
may  have  been  from  the  capital.  It  was  not  an  unusual  thing 
for  the  same  general  that  commanded  in  Britain  or  that  had 
conquered  in  Gaul,  to  administer  the  government  of  the  Afri- 
can provinces  or  to  conduct  a  campaign  against  the  Persians 
on  the  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  And  however  much  the  vanity 
of  Roman  authors  may  have  been  gratified  by  assuming  that 
they  alone  were  civilized,  it  is  altogether  irrational  to  suppose 
that  the  conquered  populations, with  the  same  nature  and  same 
capacities  as  themselves,  and  moreover,  in  frequent  and  often 
intimate  intercourse  with  themselves,  could  have  differed 
widely  or  remained  barbarians,  even  if  such  when  conquered. 
The  Romans  advanced  far  beyond  the  Greeks  in  political 
knowledge,  but  with  them  also  the  state  was  every  thing  and 
the  individual  nothing.  As  with  the  Greeks,  the  great  major- 
ity were  slaves  ;  and  Roman  citizenship,  or  the  rights  claimed 
by  a  Roman  citizen,  was  at  best  a  special  privilege ;  and  prior 
to  the  advent  of  Christianity,  the  idea  of  individual  rights,  of 
equality,  of  democracy,  seems  never  to  have  dawned  upon  the 
intellectual  horizon  of  the  race.  Nor  did  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians (even)  accept  it  in  theory,  though  they  lived  it  out  in 
practice.  Their  mental  habits  were  formed  under  the  old 
social  order,  and  though  the  spirit  of  the  new  doctrine  impelled 
them  to  five  it  out  in  practice,  few,  if  any,  ever  adopted  it  in 
theory.     Christ   had  said,  "  love  each  other,"  and  "  do  unto 


12  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

others  as  you  would  have  them  do  unto  you,"  that  is,  "  grant 
to  others  the  rights  claimed  for  yourselves,"  but  while  they 
often  lived  together,  owning  things  in  common  like  the  mod- 
ern communists  and  socialists,  perhaps  not  one  in  a  million 
ever  thought  of  applying  their  doctrines  to  the  state,  or  even 
supposing  for  a  moment  that  the  artificial  distinctions  which 
separated  classes  could  ever  be  altered  or  modified.  Even  the 
forced  and  unnatural  relation  of  master  and  slave,  which  neces- 
sarily violated  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  their  religion,  was 
clung  to  and  respected  in  theory,  and  it  needed  several  centu- 
ries of  practice  and  faithful  obedience  to  the  spirit  of  the  new 
faith  before  this  ancient  barbarism  was  finally  obliterated  from 
the  Roman  world.  The  conquest  of  Rome,  by  the  so-called 
northern  barbarians,  was  followed  by  an  eclipse  of  learning — by 
a  mental  darkness  in  Western  Europe  at  least,  that  is  fitly  enough 
denominated  the  dark  ages.  Was  this  irruption  of  the  northern 
nations  into  Italy  the  true  cause  of  this  darkness?  For  sev- 
eral centuries  previous  there  had  been  an  immense  and  almost 
continuous  emigration  from  Asia,  not  of  individuals,  as  we 
witness  in  the  present  day,  to  America,  but  of  tribes,  commu- 
nities, whole  nations.  History  is  indeed  imperfect,  if  not 
altogether  silent,  in  respect  to  the  cause  of  these  mighty  migra- 
tions which  so  long  pressed  upon  Europe.  But  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  Mongolian  race  about  this  time  changed, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  its  location,  and  pressing  down  on  the 
old  Caucasian  populations  of  Asia,  impelled  those  vast  masses 
to  seek  shelter  and  safety,  if  not  homes  and  happiness,  in  Eu- 
rope. In  the  mighty  invasions  of  Italy  in  the  fifth  century 
by  Attila,  the  truth  of  this  is  certainly  demonstrated.  He 
himself  was  doubtless  a  white  man,  and  so  were  his  chiefs;  but 
the  mighty  populations  he  ruled  over,  and  which  extended 
from  the  Danube  to  the  frontiers  of  China,  were  mainly  Mon- 
golian.    But  no  Mongolians  settled  permanently  in  Europe — 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  73 

none  but  Caucasians,  and  except  the  modern  Turks,  none  but 
pure  Caucasians — and,  being  the  same  men  as  the  Romans 
themselves,  why  should  they  be  barbarians  ?  They  were  con- 
querors ;  a  pretty  good  proof  that,  though  not  so  refined  per- 
haps, certainly  not  so  effeminate  as  the  Romans  had  become, 
they  could  not  have  been  barbarians.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  nation  that  has  made  the  greatest  advance  in 
knowledge  will  be  able  to  conquer,  because  it  has  only  to 
apply  its  knowledge  to  this  object  to  succeed.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  we  ourselves  surpass  all  the  nations  of  our  times 
in  knowledge,  or  in  our  capacity  to  apply  our  knowledge  to 
the  purposes  of  material  existence.  Our  railroads,  canals, 
public  works,  our  ship-building,  commerce,  etc.,  prove  this, 
and  we  have  only  to  apply  this  knowledge  to  purposes  of 
offence  or  defence,  to  invade  others  or  to  defend  ourselves, 
to  demonstrate  our  immense  superiority.  Nevertheless,  if  Ave 
should  conquer  Spain,  or  any  other  ancient  and  effete  empire, 
doubtless  their  writers  would  take  their  revenge  in  calling  us 
barbarians,  as  indeed  the  poor,  feeble,  and  adulterated  hybrids 
of  Mexico  actually  did  thus  represent  us  when  in  possession 
of  their  capital.  Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  more  improbable 
than  the  theory  of  Gibbon  and  others,  that  the  nations  that 
conquered  Rome  were  barbarians,  and  that  the  dark  ages  were 
the  result  of  that  conquest.  But  there  was  a  cause  for  the 
subsequent  darkness  which  so  long  spread  over  the  European 
world  much  more  palpable.  Christianity  had  become  gener- 
ally accepted,  and  bad  and  ambitious  men,  in  the  then  gen- 
eral ignoi'ance  of  the  masses  of  the  populations,  might  wield 
it  with  stupendous  effect  in  advancing  their  ambition  and 
securing  their  own  personal  objects.  The  assumption  that 
Christ  had  delegated  a  power  on  earth  to  interpret  the  will 
of  Heaven,  both  as  to  temporal  as  well  as  religious  interests, 


Ik  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

was  enough ;   of  course  all  human  investigation  and  mental 
activity  terminated,  and  was  denounced  as  impiety. 

The  subordinate  clergy  were  often,  perhaps  generally,  faith- 
ful to  the  great  truths  transmitted  by  the  primitive  Christians, 
but,  dependent  on  tradition,  and  subject  to  the  rule  of  their 
sacerdotal  superiors,  they  in  vain  resisted  these  influences,  and 
these  truths  became  in  time  so  corrupted  as  scarcely  to  retain 
any  resemblance  to  the  original  faith.  It  is  believed  that, 
except  in  these  "  dark  ages,"  the  Caucasian  mind  has  never 
retrograded  or  indeed  remained  stationary.  Progress  is  the 
law,  the  instinct,  the  necessity  of  the  Caucasian  mind,  and 
however  much  some  branches  or  some  nations  may  decline, 
there  is  always  some  portion,  nationality,  or  community,  that 
embodies  the  wants  of  the  race,  and  that  moves  forward  in 
pursuit  of  that  indefinite  perfectability  which  is  its  specific 
and  distinguishing  characteristic.  But  it  is  easily  understood 
how  this  might  have  suffered  an  eclipse  under  the  circumstan- 
ces then  existing.  A  great  proportion  of  the  so-called  barba- 
rian conquerors  of  Rome  were  ignorant  of  Christianity,  and 
when  they  became  the  converts  of  the  conquered  Romans, 
they  naturally  exalted  their  teachers  as  beings  almost  super- 
human in  their  superior  knowledge ;  and  the  general  ignorance 
of  the  times  favored  any  pretension  of  the  priests,  however 
absurd  it  might  be.  In  fact  a  body  of  men  claiming  to  be,  and 
universally  believed  to  be,  the  interpreters  of  the  will  of  the 
Almighty,  necessarily  interrupted  all  inquiry  into  the  laws  of 
nature  (the  real  laws  of  God),  and  though  some  monks  them- 
selves, immured  in  their  cells,  continued  to  think,  to  experi- 
ment, to  acquire  knowledge,  as  well  as  in  many  instances  to 
preserve  that  already  acquired  by  others,  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  as  well  as  the  great  body  of  the  clergy  looked  upon 
everything  of  the  kind  as  wicked,  impious,  and  heretical. 
And  we  have  only  to  suppose  an  intellectual  activity  and  free- 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  75 

dom  corresponding  with  our  own  times  throughout  these 
dark  centuries,  to  realize  the  stupendous  evil  inflicted  on  the 
world  by  this  priestly  arrogance  and  ambition. 

The  races,  so-called,that  figured  most  prominently  during  the 
period  beginning  with  authentic  history  and  terminating  in  the 
dark  ages,  are  first,  the  Semitic,  which  included  the  Egyptians, 
Carthaginians,  Persians,  Syrians,  Hebrews  or  Jews,  Saracens, 
Arabians,  etc.,  indeed  under  the  term  Semitic  may  be  included 
all  the  Orientals,  except  the  Parthians,  who  were  doubtless  a 
mixed  people,  and  those  northern  tribes,  historically  known  as 
Scythians,  afterwards  the  conquerors  of  Egypt  and  the  pro- 
genitors of  that  extraordinary  military  autocracy  known  in 
modern  times  by  the  name  of  Mamelukes.  The  second  great 
branch  was  the  Pelasgian,  which  included  the  Macedonians, 
the  Romans,  the  Hellenic  tribes,  Dorians,  Thracians,  etc.,  and 
of  which  the  Romans  were  for  nearly  two  thoitsand  years  the 
main  representatives.  Between  these  great  branches  of  the 
Caucasian — for  they  were  both  doubtless,  typical  Caucasians, 
though  Agassiz  thinks  that  the  Semitic  constituted  a  separate 
species — there  was  almost  constant  war,  from  the  very  begin- 
ning of  history  to  the  capture  of  Constantinople.  The  Greek 
and  Trojan  war  was  doubtless  a  collision  of  this  kind — and  so 
were  the  wars  of  the  Greeks  and  Persians — the  conquests  of 
Alexander,  which,  for  a  time,  almost  annihilated  the  Persian 
empire — the  terrible  life-and-death  struggle  of  the  Romans  and 
Carthaginians,  and  finally  the  invasion  and  conquest  of  Spain 
by  the  Arabians,  with  their  ultimate  defeat  by  the  Franks  under 
Charles  Martel.  Indeed,  coming  down  to  more  modern  times, 
we  find  the  Crusades,  when  nearly  all  Europe,  in  a  fit  of  un 
controllable  phrensy,  precipitated  itself  on  Asia;  and  in  the  col- 
lapse which  folio  wed,  Asiatic  hordes,  though  not  exactly  Semitic, 
again  seeking  to  penetrate  into  Europe,  and  actually  conquering 
the  remains  of  the  old  Roman  empire,  in  the  eastern  capital  of 


?6  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

which  they  are  now  firmly  established.  Historians  are  wont  to 
magnify  the  results  of  these  contests,  especially  the  defeat  of  Han- 
nibal and  the  overthrow  of  the  Carthaginians  by  the  Romans, 
and  the  defeat  of  the  Arabians  by  the  Franks,  as  of  vital  import- 
ance to  the  world  and  the  best  interests  of  mankind ;  but  it  is 
quite  possible  that  they  over-estimate  these  things,  especially 
the  victory  of  the  Romans  over  the  Carthaginians.  They  were 
both  of  the  same  species  of  men,  both  branches  of  the  Cauca- 
sian, with  the  same  nature,  the  same  tendencies,  and,  under 
the  same  circumstances,  the  same  beings.  The  Carthaginians 
were,  for  the  time,  highly  civilized.  They  were  the  heirs  of 
the  Egyptian  and  Asiatic  civilizations,  as  Rome  was  of  that  of 
the  Greeks.  They  were  a  great  commercial  people,  with 
boundless  wealth,  science,  arts,  manufactures,  everything  but 
a  warlike  spirit ;  while  Rome,  at  the  time  without  commerce, 
poor  and  torn  by  factions,  was  a  mere  military  aristocracy,  and 
the  capital  itself  little  more  than  a  military  encampment. 
Why,  then,  should  the  defeat  of  the  former  have  been  bene- 
ficial to  the  progress  of  the  race,  or  to  the  general  interests  of 
mankind  ? 

In  regard  to  the  defeat  of  the  Arabians  by  the  Franks,  the 
case  is  altogether  different.  They  were  the  same  species,  and 
doubtless,  at  that  time,  more  advanced  than  the  Europeans, 
but  they  were  Mohammedans,  and  in  the  full  flush  of  enthusi- 
asm for  their  faith,  which  they  invariably  propagated  by  the 
sword.  And  if  they  had  overrun  Europe  as  they  did  Asia, 
somewhat  similar  results  would  doubtless  have  followed,  for 
though  it  is  altogether  improbable,  indeed,  in  view  of  its 
Divine  origin,  impossible,  that  they  could  have  exterminated 
the  Christian  religion,  they  would  have  done  it  and  the  gen- 
eral cause  of  civilization  incalculable  injury.  But  both  of 
these  great  branches  of  the  race  have  long  since  disappeared 
from  history.    The  Semitic  element  can  scarcely  be  said  to  exist 


HISTORICAL     OUTLINE.  77 

at  all.  In  Africa  it  is  adulterated  by  the  blood  of  the  Negro, 
and  perhaps  the  blood  of  some  race  or  races  not  so  low  in  tho 
scale  as  the  Negro.  In  Asia  it  is  mixed  with  the  Mongolian 
blood,  and  though  the  Arab  and  Persian  populations  of  our 
day  are  mainly  white,  there  is  more  or  less  taint  pervading  all 
the  Asiatic  communities.  The  great  Pelasgian  branch  has 
long  since  disappeared  and  been  swallowed  up  in  the  more 
modern  branches  of  the  race,  and  though  the  modern  Italian 
claims  to  be,  and  doubtless  is,  the  lineal  descendant  of  tho 
ancient  Roman,  no  portions  of  the  race  are  wider  apart  than 
the  ancient  Roman  and  his  modern  descendant,  a  striking 
proof  that  accidental  consanguinity  does  not  affect  the  univer- 
sality of  the  race. 

The  last  great  cycle  of  history,  commencing  with  the  Refor- 
mation, comes  down  to  and  includes  our  own  times.  It  is 
quite  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  it,  as  all  intelligent  persons 
have  much  the  same  view  of  it.  With  the  downfall  of  the 
Roman  empire,  however,  new  varieties  of  the  Caucasian,  or, 
as  historians  have  termed  them,  new  races,  have  emerged  into 
view,  and  in  their  turn  struggled  for  the  empire  of  the  world. 
The  hordes  that,  under  Alaric  and  other  leaders,  overran 
Italy,  were  generally  known  as  Goths,  a  generic  term  that  is 
applied  to  great  numbers  of  very  different  people,  though,  of 
course,  all  were  white  men,  and  therefore  of  the  same  race  or 
species.  But  after  varying  fortunes,  and  passing  through 
numerous  mutations,  all  these  races  have  subsided  into  several 
well-marked  and  well-known  divisions  or  families  now  existing. 
There  are — First.  The  Celts — including  a  large  portion  of  tho 
French,  Italians,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  the  remains  of  the 
primitive  people  of  the  British  Islands.  Second.  The  Teutonic 
or  German,  including  the  Germans  of  all  kinds,  the  Swiss,  the 
mythical  Anglo-Saxon  and  perhaps  the  Danes,  the  Scandina- 
vians, etc.     Tliird.  The  Sclavonians,  embracing  the  Russians, 


78  HISTORICAL      OUTLINE. 

Poles,  Serbs,  Croats,  Montenegrins,  etc.  There  are  some  few 
nopulations  that,  either  in  language  or  historical  facts,  have 
little  or  no  connection  with  those  enumerated.  These  are  the 
modern  Hungarians,  the  European  Turks,  the  Circassians,  etc, 
They  are,  however,  Caucasians:  even  the  Turks  and  Circas- 
sians are,  in  our  times,  pure  or  mainly  pure  Caucasians. 
Finally  there  remain  our  own  people,  the  offspring  of  every 
country  and  of  every  variety  of  the  race,  and  as  the  more  the 
blood  is  crossed  the  more  energetic  and  healthy  the  product 
or  progeny,  the  American  people  should  become,  as  it  doubt- 
less will  become,  the  most  powerful  and  the  most  civilized 
people  in  existence. 

Such,  briefly  considered,  is  an  imperfect  summary  or  outline 
of  the  history  of  our  race,  the  only  race  that  has  a  history  or 
that  is  capable  of  those  mental  manifestations  whose  record 
constitutes  history.     It  is  a  favorite  theory  of  most  historians 
to  represent  the  mental  development  of  the  race  as  divided 
into  distinct  categories,  not  as  the  author  has  ventured,  into 
historic  periods,  but  into  different  phases  of  intellectual  man- 
ifestation.    They  have  supposed  that  men  (white  men)  were 
first  hunters  and  lived  wholly  by  the  chase — that  after  a  while 
they  became  shepherds,  and  lived  on  their  herds  or  flocks — 
that  then  they  made  another  advance  and  became  cultivators, 
and  finally  artisans,  merchants,  etc.     Each  of  these  conditions, 
it  has  been  supposed,  were  dependent  on,  or  were  associated 
with,  a  corresponding  mental  development.     The  hunter  had 
intellect  enough  to  run  down  the  stag  or  wit  sufficient  to  entrap 
the  game  necessary  for  his  support,  but  had   not   sufficient 
capacity  to  take  care  of  his  flocks  or  sense  sufficient  to  till  the 
earth !     This  notion  has  doubtless  arisen  from  observing  the 
habits  of  the   subordinate  races  of  men,  though  it  is  quite 
possible  that   our  own  race  has  passed  through  some  such 
stages  as  those  suggested.    But  there  has  never  been  any  vari- 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  19 

ations  in  its  actual  intellectual  powers.  The  mental  capacities 
given  it  in  the  morning  of  creation  were  just  what  they  are 
now,  and  what  they  will  be  millions  of  years  hence.  Thus  is 
explained  the  (to  many  persons)  seeming  anomaly  that  in  the 
very  dawn  of  history  there  were  men  like  Homer,  Plato,  So- 
crates, Pythagoras,  and  others,  with  a  breadth  and  depth  of 
intellect  corresponding  to  the  most  intellectual  men  of  our  own 
times.  Mental  power,  like  physical  strength,  remains  always 
the  same  through  all  ages  and  mutations  of  human  society, 
while  knowledge,  or  the  uses  made  of  the  intellectual  forces, 
is  constantly  varying  from  age  to  age,  and  changing  from  one 
country  to  another.  The  miserable  Italian  organ-grinder  un- 
der our  window,  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  suppose,  embodies 
the  high  intellect  and  powerful  will,  which  two  thousand 
years  ago,  made  his  ancestors  masters  of  the  world,  but  such 
is  the  fact,  however  latent,  unknown  or  unfelt  by  himself  may 
be  these  powers.  The  amount  or  extent  or  degrees  of  knowl- 
the  perceptions  of  external  things,  their  relations,  the 
laws  that  govern  them,  their  uses,  their  influences  on  our  well- 
being  or  the  contrary,  in  short,  our  capacities  for  acquiring 
knowledge,  for  comprehending  ourselves  and  the  things  about 
us,  are  limitless,  and  therefore  progress  and  indefinite  perfect- 
ibility are  the  specific  attributes  of  the  Caucasian.  Each  gen- 
eration applies  its  capabilities  and  acquires  a  certain  amount 
of  knowledge  which  the  succeeding  one  is  heir  to,  and  which, 
in  turn,  transmits  its  acquisition  to  those  following;  thus  its 
march  is  ever  onward,  and  except  during  the  "  dark  ages"  it 
is  believed  that  the  great  law  of  progress  which  God  has 
imposed  on  the  race  as  a  duty  as  well  as  given  it  as  a  blessing, 
has  never  been  interrupted. 

But  the  inferior  races  of  mankind  present  a  very  different 
aspect  in  this  respect.  The  Negro,  isolated  by  himself,  seems 
utterly  incapable  of  transmitting  anything  whatever   to  the 


80  HISTOEICAL      OUTLIJtB. 

succeeding  generation,  and  the  Aboriginal  American,  Malay, 
etc.,  dcubtioss  approximate  to  him  in  these  respects.  The 
Aztecs  and  Peruvians,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest, 
however,  had  advanced  to  the  grade  of  cultivators,  and  were 
therefore,  doubtless,  capable  of  a  limited  or  imperfect  trans- 
mission of  their  knowledge.  The  Malay  is  probably  capable 
of  still  greater  development  in  these  respects ;  but  its  limita- 
tions are  too  decided  to  be  mistaken.  The  Mongolian,  on  the 
contrary,  approximates  much  closer  to  ourselves,  and  while  it 
cannot  be  said  to  have  a  history  in  any  proper  sense,  it  is 
doubtless  capable  of  transmitting  its  knowledge  to  future  gen- 
erations to  a  much  greater  extent  than  others,  but  it,  too,  is  at 
an  immeasurable  distance  from  the  Caucasian  in  this  respect. 
The  Chinese,  it  is  true,  pretend  to  trace  back  their  history  to 
a  period  long  anterior  to  our  own,  but  this  claim  is  itself  suf- 
ficient proof  of  its  own  worthlessness.  ~No  one  will  suppose 
that  the  individual  Chinaman  has  a  larger  brail  or  greater 
breadth  of  intellect  than  the  individual  Caucasian,  and  if  not, 
what  folly  to  suppose  that  the  aggregate  Chinese  mind  was 
capable  of  doing  that  which  is  impossible  to  the  aggregate 
Caucasian  intellect!  The  truth  is,  what  is  supposed  to  be 
Chinese  history  is  a  mere  collection  of  fablea  and  nonsensical 
impossibilities,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  they  can  trace  back 
their  annals  even  five  hundred  years  with  any  certainty  or 
with  sufficient  accuracy  to  merit  a  claim  to  historic  dignity. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  at  some  remote  period, 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  Chinese  population  was  Cauca- 
casian,  as  indeed  a  portion  is  still  Caucasian,  and  it  is  perhaps 
certain  that  Confucius  and  other  renowned  names  known  to 
the  modern  Chinese,  were  white  men,  and  what  shadowy  and 
uncertain  historical  data  they  now  possess  are  therefore  likely 
to  have  originated  from  these  sources.  The  Mongolian  race 
was  in  fact  unknown  to   ancient  writers,  though  there  haa 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  81 

doubtless  been   contact  with  these  races  from  a  very  early 
period. 

It  is  supposed  by  Hamilton  Smith  and  others,  that  the  Mon- 
golian formally  existed  much  further  North  than  at  present, 
and  that  its  immense  development  in  regard  to  numbers 
finally  pressed  so  heavily  on  the  Caucasian  populations  of  Cen- 
tral Asia,  that  it  displaced  them,  and  hence  that  those  mighty 
migrations  into  Europe,  a  short  time  after  the  beginning  of 
the  Christian  era,  were  the  results  of  this  pressure  in  their 
rear.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  those  vast  inunda- 
tions which  at  times  swept  over  the  Asiatic  world,  and  also 
threatened  Europe  with  their  terrible  results,  were  mainly 
composed  of  M ongolic  elements.  Attila  was  of  pure  Caucasian 
blood,  and  his  chiefs  were  doubtless  also  white  men  or  of  a 
predominating  Caucasian  innervation ;  but  it  is  equally  certain 
that  the  larger  portion  of  his  terrible  hordes  were  Mongolians, 
His  seat  of  empire  was  on  the  Danube  and  somewhere  near 
the  modern  Buda,  from  winch  he  threatened  France  as  well  as 
Rome  and  the  Italian  Peninsula,  while  his  dominion  extended 
to  the  frontiers  of  China,  and  embraced  the  vast  regions  and 
almost  countless  populations  intervening  between  these  widely 
separated  points.  His  invasion  of  France,  and  his  repulse  if 
not  defeat  at  Chalons,  is  one  of  those  transcendent  events  that, 
for  good  or  evil,  change  the  order  of  history,  and  for  centuries 
affect  the  fortunes  of  mankind.  Had  this  not  happened — had 
his  march  been  uninterrupted — had  his  terrible  legions  swe^  - 
over  Western  as  they  already  had  over  Eastern  Europe,  and  a 
vast  Mongolian  population  become  permanently  settled  there, 
the  destinies  of  mankind  would  have  been  widely  different. 
But  his  repulse — his  desperate  retreat  and  his  subsequent  death, 
which  occurred  soon  after — changed  the  c  irrent  of  events,  and 
his  desolating  hordes  instead  of  effecting  a  permanent  lodge* 
ment  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  vanished  so  itterly  that,  except 

4* 


82  HISTORICAL      OUTLINE. 

a  few  thousand  Laplanders,  they  have  left  no  trace  or  evidence 
of  their  terrible  invasion  of  the  European  world. 

Genghis  Khan,  in  the  twelfth  century,  was  the  next  great 
conqueror  and  mighty  leader  of  those  vast  Mongolic  hordes 
which,  at  various  times,  have  inundated  the  ancient  world, 
and  in  their  desolating  march  swept  away  numerous  empires 
and  extinguished  whole  populations.  Genghis  Khan,  though 
of  predominating  Caucasian  blood,  was  mixed  with  Mongo- 
lian, but  his  successors  for  several  centuries  after  were  mainly 
Caucasians  or  the  children  of  Caucasian  mothers.  Finally,  the 
the  last  and  the  greatest  of  these  terrible  conquerors,  Tamerlane, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  made  a  conquest  of  nearly  the  whole 
of  Asia,  penetrating  even  into  Africa  and  conquering  Egypt, 
while  his  defeat  of  Bajazet,  the  Emperor  of  the  Turks,  then  at 
the  zenith  of  their  power,  opened  Europe  to  the  march  of  his 
desolating  hordes,  and  could  his  life  have  been  extended  a  few 
years  longer,  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  would  have  accom- 
plished what  seems  to  have  been  the  object  of  Attila,  and  sub- 
jected the  European  as  well  as  the  Asiatic  world  to  his  terri- 
ble, sway.  As  it  was,  he  invaded  and  conquered  India  as  well 
as  Egypt,  and  the  master  of,  or  wearer  of  twenty-eight  crowns, 
he  reigned  over  the  whole  of  Asia  to  the  borders  of  China, 
except  the  Turkish  dominions,  and  even  here  he  was  the  re- 
cognized master  though  he  gave  back  the  empire  to  the  sons 
of  Bajazet.  The  character  of  his  conquests — the  death  and 
desolation  that  marked  his  path — was  the  most  terrible  as  well 
as  the  most  extensive  ever  witnessed  before  or  since,  and  many 
of  the  largest  and  most  powerful  empires  of  Asia  were  as 
utterly  blotted  from  the  earth  as  if  it  had  opened  and  swallowed 
them  up.  He  himself  was  of  pure  Caucasian  extraction,  and 
doubtless  his  generals  and  chiefs  were  the  same,  and  the  Cau- 
casian Tartars  formed  a  very  considerable  portion  of  his  forces. 
There  was  doubtless  also  a  large  mixed  or  mongra1  element, 


HISTORICAL     OUTLINE.  83 

fbr  of  the  throngs  of  female  captives  taken  in  those  Mongolian 
invasions,  few  ever  returned  to  their  homes,  but  becoming  the 
wives  of  Mongolian  chiefs,  those  numerous  and  often  powerful 
dynasties  which  have  ruled  over  the  Asiatic  populations  had 
their  origin.  Nevertheless  a  vast  majority  of  these  almost 
countless  hordes  led  by  Tamerlane  were  unmixed  Mongolian 
and,  therefore,  though  the  leader  was  himself  a  Caucasian  or 
white  man,  the  bloody  and  desolating  character  of  his  con 
quests  were  stamped  by  the  cruelty  and  ferocity  of  that  race 
Perhaps  no  better  illustration  of  the  Caucasian  and  Mongolian 
character  could  be  presented  than  the  contrast  between  Alex- 
ander's invasion  of  Persia  and  India  and  similar  invasions  of 
Tamerlane.  The  first,  though  a  "Pagan"  several  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era,  was  humane  and  merciful  to  the  con- 
quered, and  except  in  battle  shed  no  blood,  while  the  latter 
not  content  with  the  enforcement  of  the  Moslem  rule  of  tribute 
or  death  or  the  religion  of  the  Prophet,  slaughtered  whole 
populations  after  the  battle  was  over,  and  for  the  gratification 
of  his  ferocious  hordes.  His  conquest  of  Bagdad  and  his  pyr- 
amid of  ninety  thousand  heads  is  one  of  those  terrible  things 
that  historians  are  generally  puzzled  with,  for  not  only  is  there 
nothing  resembling  it  in  history,  but  there  seems  to  be  no 
motive  or  sufficient  cause  for  it.  It  was  the  result,  the  offspring 
of  Mongol  ferocity  and  apathetic  cruelty,  such  as  we  now  wit- 
ness in  India  and  China,  and  springs  as  much,  perhaps,  from  a 
low  grade  of  sensibility  or  incapacity  to  feel  or  sympathize 
with  suffering,  as  from  a  sentiment  of  cruelty. 

The  Hindoos  or  East  Indians,  like  the  Chinese,  also  pretend 
to  trace  back  their  history  to  a  time  long  anterior  to  our  own 
historic  era.  Their  claim,  in  this  respect,  is  doubtless  better 
founded  than  that  of  the  former,  but  it,  too,  is  absurd  and 
valueless.  The  Hindoos  were  originally  Caucasian,  who,  at 
some  remote  period,  invaded  and  conquered  India,  and  stamped 


84  HISTORICAL      OUTLINE. 

their  civilization  and  religion  on  the  whole  peninsula.  Il  is 
quite  likely,  indeed  it  is  certain,  that  India  had  been  invaded 
and  conquered  by  numerous  nations  or  tribes  of  Caucasians 
long  anterior  to  the  Hindoo  conquest.  There  are  in  our  day 
too  many  traces  of  this,  too  many  evidences  of  the  former  ex- 
stence  of  the  great  master  race  of  mankind  in  India,  to  pei 
mit  us  to  doubt.  The  vast  debris  spread  all  over  India,  indeed 
the  sixty  or  seventy  dialects  of  Sanscrit  proves  that  India  must 
have  been  long  subject  to  the  dominion  of  the  Caucasian.  It 
is  believed  by  many  that  Hindoo  Koosh,  or  the  high  tableland 
of  Thibet,  was  the  cradle  of  the  race,  and  it  is  rational  to  sup- 
pose that  long  anterior  to  our  own  historic  era  white  men 
may  have  formed  the  principal  portion  of  the  Indian  popula- 
tion. They  doubtless  thus  spread  themselves  over  the  penin- 
sula ;  or  if  that  was  the  birth-place  of  the  Mongolian,  then  it  is 
certain  that  restless  and  energetic  Caucasian  tribes  at  a  very 
early  day  invaded  and  conquered  the  country.  Even  now 
there  is  a  large  Caucasian  element  in  India.  The  Affghans  are 
pure  Caucasian,  while  the  Sikhs,  the  Rajpoots,  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  people  of  Oude  are  doubtless  of  predominating 
Caucasian  blood.  That  caste  which  English  writers  have  so 
much  to  say  about,  and  the  good  people  of  Exeter  Hall  desire 
so  much  to  "  abolish,"  is,  to  a  great  extent,  mere  mongrel- 
ism,  and  that  which  is  not  mongrelism  is  simply  what  England 
itself  suffers  from  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  country 
or  people.  The  Normans  invaded  the  latter  country,  took 
possession  of  their  lands,  and  reduced  the  conquered  Anglo. 
Saxons  to  slavery,  where  they  have  remained  ever  since,  and 
though  the  Norman  blood  has  long  since  disappeared,  the 
theory  or  system  remains,  for  a  few  cunning  and  adroit  "  Am 
glo-Saxons,"  claiming  to  be  the  descendants  of  Norman  Con- 
querors, now  monopolize  the  land  and  rule  the  great  body  of 
the  people  as  absolutely  as  the  real  Normans  did  in  their  day, 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  85 

The  early  invaders  of  India  grasped  everything,  as  did  the 
Normans  in  England,  but  they  amalgamated  with  the  con- 
quered, and  thus  enfeebling  themselves,  fell  a  victim  to  fresh 
invasions  of  pure  Caucasians.  They,  in  their  turn,  underwent 
the  same  fate,  and  thus,  from  time  immemorial  there  grew  up 
those  multitudinous  dynasties,  each  of  which  had  its  own  char- 
acter, and  which  became  a  caste,  often,  doubtless,  as  a  means  for 
governing  the  people,  and  preserved  by  the  conquerors  as  care- 
fully as  that  which  they  in  their  turn  imposed  on  the  country. 
The  Normans  and  Saxons  were  of  the  same  race,  and  the 
greater  the  admixture  of  blood,  the  more  energetic  the  popu- 
lation, while  the  admixture  of  the  conquering  Caucasian  with 
the  conquered  Mongolian,  has  rendered  the  modern  Hindoo 
powerless  and  contemptible  in  comparison  with  the  English  or 
European  invader  of  our  times.  The  general  subject  of  the 
human  races  has  been  so  little  studied,  and  our  actual  knowl- 
edge of  these  great  Asiatic  populations  is  so  limited  and  so 
imperfect,  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine  their  present  charac- 
ter, let  alone  their  former  history,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
the  present  native  of  India  is  specifically  different  from  the 
Chinese.  It  has  been  the  custom  of  writers  on  this  subject  to 
assume  that  the  Caucasian  and  Mongolian,  with  their  often 
extensive  affiliations,  constitute  the  sole  population  of  the 
Asiatic  continent,  and  that  the  differences  which  are  actually 
presented  are  those  produced  alone  by  climate  and  external 
influences.  The  writer  has  adopted  this  view,  but  without 
assenting  to  it  in  fact,  for  the  actual  differences  between 
Nena  Sahib  or  an  Indian  prince,  and  the  true  Mongol  of 
the  Chinese  model,  are  certainly  as  distinct  as  those  sepa- 
rating the  former  from  a  modern  Englishman,  and  therefore  he 
thinks  it  quite  probable  that  further  investigation  will  show  a 
race  or  species  of  men,  mainly  to  be  found  in  India,  that  are 
yet  to  be  known  and  to  take  their  place  in  the  great  human 


86  HISTORICAL     OUTLINE. 

family,  midway  between  the  Caucasian  and  Mongolian.  Bs 
this  as  it  may,  however,  it  is  certain  that  our  own  race  alone 
has  a  history  or  is  capable  of  those  mental  manifestations 
which  constitute  the  materials  of  history.  The  Mongolic  ele- 
ment, though  often  invading  and  temporarily  conquering  large 
portions  of  territory  occupied  by  Caucasian  populations,  has 
receded  almost  as  rapidly  as  it  advanced,  and  therefore  their 
actual  centre  of  existence  remains  substantially  the  same  at  all 
times.  There  is,  however,  a  trace  of  Mongolian  blood  now 
found  outside  of  its  own  proper  centre,  but  probably  there  is  a 
much  larger  Caucasian  element  among  Mongolic  nations.  The 
Caucasian  Tartars  invaded  and  conquered  Clnna  a  few  centu- 
ries ago,  and  though  doubtless  mixed  up  with  and  mainly  Mon- 
gol at  this  time,  they  are  the  ruling  dynasty.  The  instincts 
of  this  race  naturally  impelled  it  to  escape  from  contact  or  col- 
lision with  the  superior  race ;  thus,  the  great  Avail  of  China  was 
a  vain  attempt  to  keep  out  a  race  it  fears  and  hates,  and 
which  its  instincts  assure  it  must  rule  over  itself  wherever 
they  exist  in  juxtaposition.  Many  persons  fancy  that  our  trea- 
ties with  Japan  and  China  will  bring  these  vast  populations 
within  the  circle  of  modern  civilization,  and  open  up  to  our- 
selves a  fancied  Asiatic  commerce,  which,  through  California 
and  a  Pacific  railroad,  we  shall  mainly  monopolize.  Of  course 
these  notions  originate  in  utter  ignorance  of  what  China  is  id 
reality,  and  except  in  degree  do  not  differ  from  that  of  the 
Abolitionists  in  respect  to  negroes  and  negro  "  slavery."  The 
Mongol  never  will,  as  indeed  he  never  can,  become  an  element 
in  the  modern  or  Christian  civilization  of  our  times  and  of  our 
race,  and  though  there  may  be  a  certain  trade  carried  on  be- 
tween us  and  China,  it  is  not  1  kely  to  vary  to  any  considerable 
extent  from  that  existing  now,  while  any  attempt  to  establish 
a  diplomatic  intercourse  or  equality  is  simply  absurd,  and  must 
end  m  nothing:. 


HISTORICAL      OUTLINE.  87 

This,  then,  is  the  history  of  the  Mongolian  race — the  race 
nearest  our  own — all  the  history  we  have  of  it,  and  indeed  all 
the  history  there  is  of  it,  for  however  brief  or  imperfect  out 
own  knowledge  of  the  race,  it  is  doubtless  better  and  more 
reliable  than  is  its  own  pretended  history  of  itself.  As  has 
been  said,  unlike  the  Negro,  whose  capacities  cannot  go  beyond 
the  living  or  actual  generation,  and  with  whom  millions  of 
generations  are  the  same  as  a  single  one,  the  Mongolian  mind 
may  perhaps,  with  more  or  less  correctness,  grasp  the  life  of  a 
few  generations,  but  in  no  proper  sense  is  it  capable  of  acting, 
and  consequently  of  writing  history. 


CHAPTER    V. 

COLOR. 

Anatomists  arid  physiologists  have  labored  very  earnestly  to 
account  for  or  to  show  the  "  cause"  of  color,  not  of  the  Negro 
alone,  but  in  the  case  of  our  own  race.  They  have  generally 
supposed  that  the  pigmentum  nigrum,  a  substance  lying  im 
mediately  beneath  the  outward  skin,  or  cuticle,  constituted 
that  cause,  and  therefore  the  complexion  was  fair  or  dark, 
blonde  or  brunette,  just  as  the  "  coloring"  matter  might  hap- 
pen to  be  dark  or  otherwise.  This,  in  a  sense,  is  doubtless 
true,  but  to  speak  of  it  as  a  cause  is  an  abuse  of  terms,  for  it 
is  simply  a  fact,  and  no  more  a  cause  than  it  is  an  effect. 
Cause  and  causes  in  natural  phenomena  are  known  only  to 
Omnipotence,  and  why  the  Caucasian  color  is  white  or  the 
Mongol  yellow,  or  the  Negro  black,  is  as  absolutely  hidden 
from  us  as  the  cause  of  their  existence  at  all — as  wholly  be- 
yond the  scope  of  human  intelligence,  and  therefore  of  rational 
inquiry,  as  the  cause  of  the  return  of  the  seasons,  or  why 
men  and  animals  at  a  certain  time  arrive  at  maturity  or  finally 
decay  and  die.  The  divine  wisdom  and  perfect  fitness  of  the 
fact  itself,  however,  are  clearly  appreciable,  and  we  are  able  to 
see,  not  only  its  transcendent  importance,  but  the  utter  impos- 
sibility of  its  being  otherwise.  There  is  in  all  the  works  of 
God  perfect  harmony,  as  well  as  perfect  wisdom,  and,  there- 
fore, such  a  monstrosity  as  a  "  colored  man" — or  a  being  like 
ourselves  in  all  except  the  color  of  the  negro — is  not  merely 
absurd,  but  as  impossible  in  fact,  though  not  so  palpable  to  a 


VSB,— ■ 


<■, 


MONGOLIAN. 


COLOB.  89 

superficial  intelligence,  as  a  white  body  with  a  negro  head  on 
its  shoulders,  or  indeed  as  a  dog  with  the  head  of  any  other 
animal  or  form  of  being. 

The  face  of  the  Caucasian  reflects  the  character,  the  emo- 
tions, the  instincts,  to  a  certain  extent  the  intellectual  forces, 
and  even  the  acquired  habits,  the  virtues  or  vices  of  the  indi- 
vidual.    This,  to  a  certain  extent,  depends  on  the  mobility  of 
the  facial  muscles,  and  the  general  anatomical  structure  and 
outline  of  the  features ;  but  without  our  color,  the  expression 
would  be  very  imperfect,  and  the  face  wholly  incapable  of  ex 
pressing  the  inner  nature  and  specific  character  of  the  race. 
For  example :  What  is  there  at  the  same  time  so  charming 
and  so  indicative  of  inner  purity  and  innocence  as  the  blush  of 
maiden  modesty  ?     For  an  instant  the  face  is  scarlet,  then, 
perhaps,  paler  than  ever  in  its  delicate  transparency ;  and  these 
physical  changes,  beautiful  as  they  may  be  to  the  eye,  are  ren* 
dered  a  thousand  times  more  so  by  our  consciousness  that  they 
reflect  moral  emotions  infinitely  more  beautiful.     Can  any  one 
suppose  such  a  thing  possible  to  a  black  face  ?  that  these  sud- 
den and  startling  alternations  of  color,  which  reflect  the  moral 
perceptions  and  elevated  nature  of  the  white  woman,  are  pos- 
sible to  the  negress  ?     And  if  the  latter  cannot  reflect  these 
things   in  her  face— if  her  features  are  utterly  incapable  of 
expressing  emotions  so  elevated  and  beautiful,  is  it  not  certain 
that  she  is  without  them— that  they  have  no  existence  in  her 
inner  being,  are  no  portion  of  her  moral  nature  ?     To  suppose 
otherwise  is  not  only  absurd,  but  impious ;  it  is  to  suppose 
that  the  Almighty  Creator  would  endow  a  being  with  moral 
wants  and   capacities  that  could  have  no  development— with 
an  inner  nature  denied  any  external  reflection  or  manifestation 
!  of  its  wants  or  of  itself.     Of  course,  it  is  not  intended  to  say 
that  the  negress  has  not  a  moral  nature ;  it  is  only  intended  to 
demonstrate  the  fact  that  she  has  not  the  moral  nature  of  tho 


90  COLOR. 

— — Jwhite  jE.©maoj  and,  therefore,  those  who  would  endow  her 
inner  nature  with  these  qualities,  must  necessarily  charge  the 
Creator  with  the  gross  injustice  of  withholding  from  her  any 
expression  of  qualities  so  essential  to  her  own  happiness,  as 
well  as  to  our  conception  of  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  woman- 
hood. This  same  illustration  is  extensively  diversified  in  re- 
gard to  the  other  sex.  It  is  seen  every  day  in  our  social  life, 
and  confronts  us  at  every  step.  The  white  man  is  flushed  with 
anger,  or  livid  with  fear,  or  pale  with  grief.  He  is  at  one 
moment  so  charged  with  the  darker  passions  as  to  be  almost 
black,  and  the  next  so  softened  by  sorrow  or  stricken  by  grief 
that  the  face  is  bloodless  and  absolutely  white.  All  these  out- 
ward manifestations  of  the  inner  nature — of  the  moral  being 
with  which  God  has  endowed  us — are  familiar  to  every  one. 
They  form  a  portion  of  our  daily  experience,  and  constitute  an 
essential  part  of  our  social  life. 

There  are  great  differences  among  our  people  in  regard  to 
the  general  expression  of  the  features.  Some  reflect  in  their 
faces  all  the  emotions  by  which  they  are  moved,  while  others 
.^re  so  stolid,  or  they  have  acquired  such  a  control  over  them- 
selves in  these  respects,  as  to  appear  impenetrable.  But  this 
has  no  connection  with  color,  or  any  relation  to  that  great 
fundamental  and  specific  fact  by  which  and  through  which  the 
Almighty  has  adapted  the  character  and  revealed  the  relative 
conditions  of  the  several  human  races.  Like  all  the  other  great 
facts  involved,  color  is  the  standard  and  exact  admeasurement 
of  the  specific  character.  The  Caucasian  is  white,  the  Negro 
is  Hack  ;  the  first  is  the  most  superior,  '.  he  latter  the  most  in- 
ferior— and  between  these  extremes  of  humanity  are  the  inter- 
mediate races,  approximating  to  the  former  or  approaching  the 
latter,  just  as  the  Almighty,  in  His  boundless  wisdom  and* 
ineffable  beneficence,  has  seen  fit  to  order  it.  Color  is  no  mora 
radical  or  universal,  or  no  more  a  difference  between  Avhita 
men  and  negroes,  than  any  other  fact  out  of  the  countless  mil- 


COLOR.  91 

lions  of  facts  that  separate  them.  It  is  more  palpable  to  the 
sense,  more  unavoidable,  but  no  more  universal  or  invariable 
than  the  difference  in  the  hair,  the  voice,  the  features,  the  form 
of  the  limbs,  the  single  globule  of  blood,  or  the  myriads 
and  millions  of  things  that  constitute  the  Negro  being.  \  It 
would  seem  that  the  Almighty  Creator,  when  stamping  this 
palpable  distinction  on  the  very  surface,  had  designed  to  guard 
His  work  from  any  possible  desecration,  and  therefore  had 
marked  it  so  legibly,  that  human  ignorance,  fraud,  folly,  or 
wickedness,  could  by  no  possibility  mistake  it.  And  indeed 
it  is  not  mistaken,  for  those  perverse  creatures  among  us  who 
clamor  so  loudly  for  negro  equality,  or  that  the  negro  shall  be 
treated  as  if  he  were  a  white  man,  only  desire  to  force  their 
hideous  theories  on  others,  and  would  rather  have  their  own 
families  utterly  perish  from  the  earth  than  to  practice  or  live 
up  to  their  doctrine  in  this  respect.  The  term  "colored  man," 
or  "  colored  person,"  though  natural  enough  to  Europeans,  or 
to  those  who  had  never  seen  negroes,  or  different  races  from 
themselves,  could  never  have  originated  in  a  community  hav- 
ing negroes  in  its  midst,  for  it  is  not  only  a  misnomer  but  an 
absurdity  as  gross  as  to  say  a  colored  fish  or  a  colored  bird. 
Finally,  as  color  is  the  standard  and  the  test  of  the  specific 
character,  revealing  the  inner  nature  and  actual  capabilities  of 
the  race,  so,  too,  is  it  the  test  and  standard  of  the  normal 
physical  condition  of  the  individual.  The  highest  health  of 
the  white  man  is  distinguished  by  a  pure  and  transparent  skin, 
and  exactly  as  he  departs  from  this,  his  color  is  clouded  and 
sallow ;  while  that  of  the  negro  is  marked  by  perfect  black- 
ness, and  the  departure  from  this  is  to  dirty  brown,  almost  ash 
color — thus,  as  in  everything  else,  revealing  the  eternal  truth 
that  life  and  well-being,  social  as  well  as  individual,  are  iden- 
tical with  an  exact  recognition  of  these  extremes,  and  that  it  is 
only  when  disease  and  unnatural  conditions  prevail,  that  a  cer- 
tain approximation  to  color  or  to  equality  become  possible. 


CHA  PTER    VI. 

FIGURE. 

To  consider  and  properly  contrast  the  attitude  or  the  gen- 
eral outline  of  the  negro  form  with  that  of  the  Caucasian, 
needs  a  large  space  to  do  the  subject  justice.  But  a  few  brief 
points  are  sufficient  to  grasp  its  essential  features  and  enable 
every  one  to  add  or  to  fill  up  the  details  from  his  own  experi- 
ence. Cuvier,  the  great  French  zoologist,  it  is  said  might  pick 
up  a  bone  of  any  kind,  however  minute,  in  the  deserts  of 
Arabia,  and  from  this  alone  determine  the  species,  genus,  and 
class  to  which  it  belonged.  This  at  first  seems  almost  incred- 
ible, but  a  moment's  reflection  shows  not  only  its  practicability, 
but  the  ease  and  certainty  with  which  it  may  be  accomplished. 
Indeed  we  have  recently  witnessed  a  still  more  remarkable 
instance  of  this  tracing  the  life  and  defining  the  relations  of 
organized  beings  from  a  minute  and  remote  point.  Agassiz 
has  been  able,  from  a  single  scale  of  a  fish,  to  determine  the 
specific  character  of  fishes,  and  those,  too,  which  he  had  never 
before  seen  !  A  bone  is  picked  up  at  random  by  the  zoologist; 
he  roon  discovers  that  it  is  a  bone  of  the  thigh  of  some  animal, 
and  this  necessarily  leads  to  the  fact  that  it  belonged  to  a 
quadruped,  and  it,  in  its  turn,  leads  to  other  fiicts  equally 
connected  and  dependent  on  each  other,  for  that  great  funda- 
mental and  eternal  law  of  hannony  or  adaptation  which  God 
has  stamped  on  the  organic  and  material  universe  permits  of 
no  incongruities  or  contradictions  to  mar  its  beauty  or  deface 
its  grandeur.    Thus  an  anatomist,  who  had  given   a   certain 


FIGURE.  93 

amount  of  attention  to  the  subject,  might  select  the  smallest 
bone,  a  carpal  or  bone  of  the  finger,  for  example,  and  de- 
termine from  among  millions  of  similar  ones,  whether  it  was 
that  of  a  white  man  or  of  a  negro, with  perfect  certainty  and 
the  greatest  ease.  He  would  know  that  such  bone  formed 
part  of  a  hand  with  a  limited  flexibility — that  the  bony  struc- 
ture was  in  accord  with  the  tendons  and  muscles  that  moved 
it,  and  gave  it,  compared  with  that  of  the  Caucasian,  a  re- 
stricted capacity  of  action,  of  susceptibility,  etc.,  and  he  would 
necessarily  connect  this  hand  with  an  arm  of  corresponding 
structure,  and  going  on  multiplying  the  connections  and  rela- 
tions, he  would  be  led  to  the  final  result,  and  without  possibil- 
ity of  mistake,  that  the  bone  in  question  belonged  to  a  negro. 
But  while  the  analysis  of  a  single  bone  or  of  a  single  feature 
of  the  negro  being  is  thus  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  spe- 
cific character  or  to  show  the  diversity  of  race,  that  great  fact 
is  still  more  obviously  and  Avith  equal  certainty  revealed  in  the 
form,  attitude,  and  other  external  qualities.  The  negro  is  inca- 
pable of  an  erect  or  direct  perpendicular  posture.  J  The  general 
structure  of  his  limbs,  the  form  of  the  pelvis,  the  spine,  the 
way  the  head  is  set  on  the  shoulders,  in  short,  the  tout  ensem- 
ble of  the  anatomical  formation,  forbids  an  erect  position. 
But  while  the  whole  structure  is  thus  adapted  to  a  slightly 
stooping  posture,  the  head  would  seem  to  be  the  most  impor- 
tant agency,  for  with  any  other  head  or  the  head  of  any 
other  race,  it  would  be  impossible  to  retain  an  upright  position 
at  all. 

The  form  or  figure  of  the  Caucasian  is  perfectly  erect,  with 
the  eyes  on  a  plane  with  the  horizon,  and  the  broad  forehead, 
distinct  features  and  full  and  flowing  beard,  stamp  him  with  a 
stiperiority  and  even  majesty  denied  to  all  other  creatures,  and 
relatively  to  all  other  races  of  men.  On  the  contrary,  the 
narrow  and  longitudinal  head  of  the  negro  projecting  posteri 


94  FIGURE. 

ally,  places  his  eyes  at  an  angle  with  the  horizon,  and  thus  alone 
enables  him  to  approximate  to  an  erect  position.  Of  course, 
we  are  not  to  speculate  on  what  is  impossible  or  to  suggest 
what  might  happen  if  the  negro  head  had  resembled  that  of  the 
Caucasian,  for  the  slightest  change  of  an  elementary  atom  in 
the  negro  structure  woidd  render  him  an  impossible  monstros- 
ity. But  with  the  broad  forehead  and  small  cerebellum  of  the 
Avhite  man,  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  the  negro  would  no 
longer  possess  a  centre  of  gravity,  and  therefore  those  philan- 
thropic people  who  woidd  "  educate"  him  into  intellectual 
eauality  or  change  the  mental  organism  of  the  negro,  would 
simply  render  him  incapable  of  standing  on  his  feet  or  of  an 
upright  position  on  any  terms.  Every  one  must  have  remarked 
this  peculiarity  in  the  form  and  attitude  of  the  negro.  His  head 
is  thrown  upwards  and  backwards,  showing  a  certain  though 
remote  approximation  to  the  quadruped  both  in  its  actual 
formation  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  set  on  his  shoulders. 
The  narrow  forehead  and  small  cerebrum — the  centre  of  the 
intellectual  powers — and  the  projection  of  the  posterior  portion 
— the  centre  of  the  animal  functions — render  the  negro  head 
radically  and  widely  different  from  that  of  the  white  man.  This 
every  one  knows,  because  every  one  sees  it  every  day,  and  the 
universal  and  all  pervading  law  of  adaptation  which  God  has 
eternally  stamped  upon  the  structure  of  all  His  creatures  en- 
ables the  negro  to  thus  preserve  a  centre  of  gravity  and  com- 
paratively an  upright  posture.  But  were  it  true  that  men  can 
make  themselves,  can  push  aside  the  Almighty  Creator  Him- 
self, as  taught  by  certain  "  reformers"  of  the  day,  and  vastly 
improve  the  "  breed"  and,  as  the  "  friends  of  humanity"  hold, 
that  the  negro  can  be  made  to  conform  in  his  intellectual 
qualities  to  those  of  the  white  man,  then  it  is  certain  that  their 
difficulties  would  become  greater  than  ever.  That  the  cere- 
brum or  anterior  portion  of  the  brain  is  the  centre,  the  seat, 


PIGUKE.  95 

the  organism, in  fact,  of  the  intellectual  nature,  is  as  certain  as 
that  the  eye  is  the  organ  of  sight,  and  that  in  proportion  to  its 
size  relatively  with  the  cerebellum — the  centre  of  the  animal 
instincts — is  there  mental  capacity,  however  latent  it  may  be 
in  the  case  of  individuals,  is  equally  certain.  And  should  these 
would-be  reformers  of  the  work  of  the  Almighty  change  the 
intellectual  nature  of  the  negro,  they  would  necessarily  change 
the  organism  through  which,  and  by  which,  that  nature  is 
manifested,  and  thus  enlarging  the  anterior  and  diminishing 
the  posterior  portion  of  the  brain  into  correspondence  with 
their  own,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  they  would  destroy  the 
harmony  which  exists  between  the  negro  head  and  the  negro 
Body,  and  instead  of  a  black-white  man,  or  a  being  with  the 
same  intellectual  nature  as  ours,  they  would  render  him  as  ut- 
terly incapable  of  locomotion  or  of  an  upright  position  at  all 
as  if  they  had  cut  off  his  head,  instead  of  re-creating  it  on  the 
model  of  their  own  !  The  whole  anatomical  structure,  the  feet, 
the  hands,  the  limbs,  the  size  and  form  of  the  head,  the  fea- 
tures, the  hair,  the  color,  the  tout  ensemble  of  the  negro  being, 
as  it  is  revealed  to  the  sense,  embodies  the  negro  inferiority 
when  compared  with  other  races ;  and  as  regards  the  white 
man  or  Caucasian,  it  presents  a  contrast  so  striking  and  an  in- 
I  terval  so  broad  and  unmistakable  that  it  seems  impossible  any 
one's  senses  could  be  so  blunted,  or  his  perceptions  soper- 
Verted  as  to  be  rendered  incapable  of  perceiving  it.  The  flexi- 
ble grace  of  the  limbs,  the  straight  lines  of  the  figure,  the 
expressive  features,  the  broad  forehead  and  transparent  color, 
and  flowing  beard,  all  combine  to  give  a  grace  and  majesty  to 
the  Caucasian  that  stamps  him  undisputed  master  of  all  living 
beings,  and  even  the  creatures  of  the  animal  world  perceive 
imd  acknowledge  this  supremacy.  It  is  not  an  uncommon 
thing  in  India  for  a  tiger,  rendered  desperate  by  hunger,  to 
suddenly  leap  into  a  crowd  and  to  carry  off  a  man,  but  instead 


96  FIGURE. 

; 

of  a  European  ho  invariably  selects  a  native,  and  while  such  a 
thing  as  the  seizure  of  a  white  man  is  unknown,  the  negroes 
hi  Sierra  Leone  are  frequently  carried  off  and  eaten  by  lions. 
The  instinct  of  the  animal  leads  it  to  attack  the  inferior,  and 
therefore  feebler  being,  as  even  our  domestic  animals  are  far 
more  likely  to  attack  children  than  adults.  The  negro  actu- 
ally has  nothing  in  common  with  the  animal  world  that  other 
races  have  not,  but  those  things  common  to  men  and  animals 
are  much  more  prominent  in  him.  Thus,  while  there  is  an 
impassable  and  perpetual  chasm  between  them,  there  is  a  cer- 
tain resemblance  between  the  negro  and  the  ourang-outang. 
The  latter  is  the  most  advanced  species  of  the  simiadse  or  ape 
family,  while  the  negro  is  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  the  human 
creation,  and  the  approximation  to  each  other,  though  of 
course  eternally  incomplete,  is  certainly  striking.  As  stated 
elsewhere,  the  author  does  not  belong  to  that  gloomy  and  for- 
bidding school  of  materialism  which  would  make  the  faculties 
and  even  our  moral  emotions  the  mere  result  of  organism. 
But  there  is  an  inseparable  connection  which  necessarily  ren- 
ders them  the  exact  admeasurement  of  each  other,  and  though 
neither  cause  nor  result,  and  their  ultimate  relation  eternally 
hidden  from  the  finite  mind,  they  are,  in  this  existence  at  least, 
inextricably  bound  up  together.  The  approximation,  there- 
fore, of  the  negro  to  the  ourang-outang,  while  there  is  a  bound- 
less space  within  the  circle  of  which  there  can  be  no  resem- 
blence — for  the  negro  is  absolutely  and  entirely  human — and 
within  which  it  is  not  proposed  to  enter,  is  exactly  revealed  in 
the  outward  form  and  attitude.  The  negro,  from  the  struc- 
ture of  his  limbs,  his  head,  etc.,  has  a  decided  inclination  to 
the  quadruped  posture,  while  the  ourang-outang  has  an  equal 
tendency  to  the  upright  human  form.  The  latter  often  walks 
partially  erect,  and  sometimes  even  carries  a  club,  while  the 
typical  negro  in  Africa  or  Cuba,  or  anywhere  in  his  natural 


FIGUEE  .  9? 

state,  is  quite  as  likely  to  squat  on  his  hams  as  to  stand  on  his 
feet.  Thus,  an  anatomist  with  the  negro  and  ourang-outang 
before  him,  after  a  careful  comparison,  would  say,  perhaps, 
that  nature  herself  had  been  puzzled  where  to  place  them, 
and  had  finally  compromised  the  matter  by  giving  them 
an  exactly  equal  inclination  to  the  form  and  attitude  of  each 
other. 

5 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE     HAIR. 

Next  to  color,  there  is  nothing  so  palpable  to  the  sense  aa 
the  hair,  or  nothing  that  reveals  the  specific  difference  of  race 
so  unmistakably  as  the  natural  covering  of  the  head.  The  hair 
of  the  Caucasian  is  a  graceful  and  imposing  feature  or  quality, 
of  course  in  perfect  harmony  with  everything  else,  but  some- 
times, and  especially  in  the  case  of  females,  it  is  an  attribute 
of  physical  beauty  more  striking  and  attractive  than  any  other. 
Its  color,  golden  or  sunny  brown,  and  the  dazzling  hues  of 
black,  purple,  and  auburn  tresses,  has  been  the  theme  of  poets 
from  time  immemorial,  while  its  luxuriance,  and  silky  softness, 
and  graceful  length  will  continue  to  be  the  pride  of  one  sex 
and  the  admiration  of  the  other  as  long  as  the  perception  of 
beauty  remains. 

In  the  Mongol,  Malay,  or  Indian,  as  well  as  the  Negro,  it 
remains  the  same  through  all  the  stages  of  life,  and  it  is  only 
m  extreme  old  age  that  it  becomes  gray  or  silvery  white,  or 
even  falls  off  from  any  portion  of  the  head.  The  coarse,  stiff, 
black  hair  of  the  Indian  child  is  that  also  of  its  parents — and  a 
gray-headed  or  bald-headed  Indian,  except  in  some  cases  of 
extreme  old  age,  is  as  rare  perhaps  as  that  of  a  bald-headed 
negro.  But  the  child  of  the  Caucasian,  with  perfectly  white 
or  flaxen  hair,  expands  into  the  maiden  with  clustering  ringlets 
of  auburn  or  perhaps  raven  black,  to  be  threaded  with  silver, 
in  middle  life  perhaps,  and  though  less  common  than  with  the 
other  sex,  a  few  years  later  it  becomes  again,  as  in  early  child- 


THEHAIB.  99 

hood,  perfectly  white.  But  there  are  no  exceptions  to  the 
uniform  color  of  the  hair  in  other  races.  Such  a  thing  as  a 
flaxendiaired  or  a  light-haired  negro  child  never  existed. 
There  may  he  sometimes  a  slight  approximation  in  this  respect 
among  Mongols,  hut  the  hair  of  the  negro,  except  in  some 
cases  of  extreme  old  age,  remains  absolutely  the  same  at  all 
periods,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  The  elementary  struc- 
ture, as  shown  by  the  elaborate  microscopical  observations  of 
Mr.  Peter  A.  Browne,  of  Philadelphia,  differs  as  widely  as  the 
external  or  superficial  modifications.  The  popular  notion  that 
it  is  wool  instead  of  "hair  that  covers  the  negro  head  is  like 
many  others,  founded  on  a  mere  external  resemblance,  without 
any  actual  correspondence.  It  is  hair,  but  sui  generis,  or 
rather  specific  and  common  to  the  negro  alone,  and  however 
widely  different  from  that  of  white  people,  it  is  no  more  so 
than  any  other  quality  or  feature  of  the  negro  nature.  The 
variations  of  this  feature  in  the  white  race  are  almost  unlimited. 
Hair  dressing  even  has  been  elevated  to  the  respectability  of 
an  art,  if  not  to  the  dignity  of  a  science.  For  many  gener- 
ations the  kings  of  France  kept  artistes  of  this  character,  who 
often  received  a  salary  equal  to  the  ministers  of  the  crown,  and 
one  of  them,  Oliver  Le  Dain,  became  in  fact,  if  not  in  form, 
the  actual  rider  of  the  kingdom.  But  it  was  the  princesses 
and  ladies  of  the  court  that  exalted  this  "  art"  to  its  highest 
pitch  of  extravagance  and  display.  Marie  Antoinette — one  of 
the  most  unhappy  women  that  ever  lived — made  it  an  impor- 
tant part  of  every  day's  employment,  and  exacted  the  same 
labor  from  her  attendants.  Even  in  our  own  more  sensible 
times,  the  Empress  Eugenie  changes  the  fashions  in  this  re- 
spect almost  every  month,  and  the  styles  or  modes  of  dressing 
their  hair  is  an  extravagant  though  amiable  weakness  of  our 
own  fair  countrywomen.  There  is  in  fact  no  mere  physical 
quality  of  the  female  so  attractive, or  that  is  capable  of  being 


100 


Tn  E     HAIB. 


rendered  so  charming,  as  the  hair,  and  the  elaborate  dressings, 
the  time  and  labor  spent  on  its  decoration,  proceed  as  much 
perhaps  from  that  delicate  perception  of  the  beautiful  innate  in 
woman  as  it  does  from  female  vanity  or  the  love  of  display. 
But  with  this  "  wealth  of  beauty"  of  the  Caucasian  woman, 
what  an  immeasurable  interval  separates  her  from  the  negress ! 
Is  it  possible  for  any  who  sees  the  latter,  with  her  short,  stiff, 
uncombable  fleece  of  seeming  wool,  to  endow  her  with  the  attri- 
bute of  beauty  or  comeliness  ?     And  though  somewhat  less 
palpable  in  the  other  sex,  the  hair  is  an  essential  element  of 
manly  beauty  as  well  as  dignity,  and  the  "  love  locks"  of  the 
cavaliers  and  even  the  "  soap  locks"  of  more  modern  times,  are 
identified  with  certain  conceptions  of  manly  grace.     Can  any 
one  form  such  conceptions  in  respect  to  the  hair  of  the  negro  ? 
Can  he  identify  any'  of  these  things  with  the  crisp,  stiff,  seem- 
ing wool  that  covers  the  head  of  that  race  ?     Can  the  senti- 
ment of  beauty,  grace  or  dignity,  or  indeed  any  idea  whatever 
— except  as  a  necessary  provision  of  nature  for  covering  the 
negro  head — attach  to  the  hair  of  the  negro  ?     This  is  all  that 
is  possible  to  the  mind  of  a  white  person  in  actual  juxtaposi- 
tion with  the  negro,  and  therefore  while  the  European  Abol- 
itionist may  fancy  his  head  adorned  by  "  ambrosial  curls,"  our 
own  native  Abolitionists  are  wholly  unable  to  conceive  of  any 
use  or  purpose  whatever  for  that  dense  mat  of  wiry  and  twisted 
hair  which  covers  the  negro  head,  except  as  a  provision  of  na- 
ture for  its  protection.     The  protection  of  the  head,  or  rather 
of  the  brain,  is  the  purpose  or  the  function  of  the  hair  in  all 
races,  but  while  that,  in  our  race,  is  identified  with  elevated  and 
striking  qualities,  it  is  the  sole  purpose  in  the  case  of  thauegro. 
The  short,  crisp,  dense  mass  that  covers  the  negro  head,  like 
every  other  quality  or  attribute  of  the  negro  nature,  is  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  the  climatic  and  external  circumstances  with 
which  God  has  surrotmded  him.    The  popular  notion  that  tha 


# 


THE     HAIB.  101 

nogro  skull  is  much  thicker  than  that  of  the  white  man  origi. 
nated  from  this  peculiarity  of  the  covering  of  the  negro  head. 
The  hair  is  so  dense,  so  curled  and  twisted  together,  and  forma 
such  a  complete  mat  or  net  work  as  to  be  wholly  impenetrable 
Uo  the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun,  and  to  furnish  a  vastly  better 
Jprotection  for  the  brain  than  the  thickest  felt  hat  does  to  that 
\g£  the  white  man.  Thus,  though  negroes  on  our  southern 
plantations,  with  the  imitative  instincts  of  their  race,  copy 
after  the  whites  and  wear  hats,  it  is  merely  a  "  fashionable 
folly,"  and  dictated  by  no  natural  want,  nor  in  the  slightest 
degree  adds  to  their  happiness.  And  beside  the  protection 
from  the  fierce  heats  of  the  tropics,  the  hair  of  the  negro  pro- 
tects his  head  in  other  respects.  /  It  is  so  hard  and  wiry,  and 
in  foot  triangular  in  form,  that  a  blow  from  the  hand  of  a  mas- 
ter would  doubtless  injure  the  latter  vastly  more  than  it  would 
the  head  of  the  negro,  and  the  common  practice  among  them 
of  butting  each  other  with  their  heads,  though  knocking  them 
off  their  feet,  and  the  concussion  heard  at  considerable  dis- 
tances, never  results  in  injury,  for  the  dense  mat  of  semi-wool 
that  covers  the  head  protects  it  from  mischief.  The  negro 
hair  is  then  designed  solely  for  the  protection  of  the  negro 
bead,  and  not  only  differs  widely  from  that  of  the  Caucasian, 
but  from  that  of  all  other  races,  for  the  negro  is  a  tropical  race, 
and  the  hair,  like  all  other  attributes  of  the  negro  being,  phys- 
ical and  moral,  is  adapted  to  a  tropical  clime,  and  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  physical  wants  and  moral  necessities  of  the  race. 
But  the  mere  covering  of  the  head,  or  the  mere  protection 
of  the  brain,  is  not  all  that  distinguishes  the  different  races 
in  these  respects.  The  beard  is  equally  radical  and  univer- 
sal, though  not  so  palpable  a  specialty  as  color,  and  in  some 
respects  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  more  important  one.  The 
Caucasian  alone  has  a  beard,  for  though  all  others  approximate 
to  it  in  this  respect,  it  is  the  only  bearded  race,  and  some 


102  THE     HAIR. 

writers  on  ethnology  have  been  so  impressed  with  this  impos- 
ing and  striking  distinction  that  they  have  sought  to  make  it 
the  basis  of  a  classification  of  races.     And  there  certainly  is  no 
physical  or  outward  quality  that  so  imposingly  impresses  itself 
on  the  senses  as  a  mark  of  superiority,  or  evidence  of  supre 
macy,as  a  full  and  flowing  beard.     Color,  when  in  repose,  or 
when  it  does  not  give  expression  to  the  inner  nature,  does  not, 
in  reality,  constitute  a  distinction  at  all,  but  the  beard  is  an 
evidence  of  superiority,  that,  however  varied  the  action  or 
whatever  the  circumstances,  is  equally  distinct  and  universal 
as  an  attribute  of  supremacy.     This  is  sufficiently  illustrated 
in  our  own  race  and  our  every  day  experience.     The  youth  is 
beardless,  and  pari  passu  as  he  approaches  to  the  maturity  of 
manhood  there  is  a  corresponding  development  of  beard.    The 
intellect — the  mental  strength — the  moral  beauty,  all  the  qual- 
ities of  the  inner  being,  as  well  as  those  outward  attributes 
tangible  to  the  sense,  harmonize  perfectly  with  the  growth  of 
the  beard,  and  when  that  has  reached  its  full  development,  it 
is  both  the  signal  and  the  proof  of  mature  manhood — an  exact 
admeasurement  and  absolute  proof  of  the  maturity  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  well  as  the  type  and  standard  of  the  race.     This  is 
equally  true  when  applied  to  different  races.     The  Caucasian 
is  the  only  bearded  race,  but  all  others  approximate  in  this 
respect,  and  the  negro  is  furthest  removed  of  all,  for  the  trop- 
ical woolly  haired  African  or  negro,  except  a  little  tuft  on  the 
chin  and  sometimes  on  the  upper  lip,  has  nothing  that  can  be 
confounded  with  a  beard.    People  sometimes  see  negroes  with 
considerable  hair  on  their  faces,  and  hence  conclude  that  they 
are  as  likely  to  have  beards  as  white  men ;  but  they  forget 
that  all  in  our  society  who  are  not  whites  are  considered  negroes, 
and  therefore  those  bearded  negroes  have  a  large  infusion,  and 
doubtless  sometimes  a  vastly  predominating  infusion  of  Cauca- 
sian blood.     The  beard  symbolizes  our  highest  conceptions  of 


THE     HAIR.  103 

manhood — it  is  the  outward  evidence  of  mature  <:  svelopment 
— of  complete  growth,  mental  as  well  as  physical — of  Btrength, 
wisdom  and  manly  grace,  and  the  full,  flowing,  and  majestic 
beard  of  the  Caucasian,  in  contrast  with  the  negro  or  other 
subordinate  races,  is  as  striking  and  imposing  as  the  mane  of 
the  lion  when  compared  with  the  meaner  beasts  of  the  animal 
world.  Like  color  or  any  other  of  the  great  fundamental  facts 
separating  races,  the  beard  is  sufficient  to  determine  their  spe- 
cific character  and  their  specific  relations  to  each  other,  and  we 
have  only  to  apply  our  every  day  experience  as  regards  this 
outward  symbol  of  inner  manhood  to  measure  the  relative  infe- 
riority of  the  negro.  The  Abolitionists  demand  that  the 
""  equal  manhood"  of  the  negro  shall  be  recognized,  and  com- 
plain bitterly  of  a  government  that  refuses  to  respond  to  their 
wishes  in  this  respect,  but  if  this  "  equal  manhood"  was  actu- 
ally revealed  to  them  in  the  person  of  the  negro  as  it  is  in  the 
persons  of  white  men,  and  as  God  has  alone  provided  and  or- 
dained ov  permitted  it  to  be  revealed,  they  would  be  over- 
whelmed with  astonishment  or  convulsed  with  laughter.  A 
negro  with  a  full  and  flowing  beard,  with  this  symbol  of  per- 
fect manhood  or  with  this  outward  manifestation  of  the  inner 
(Caucasian)  being,  would  be  a  ludicrous  monstrosity,  as  impos- 
sible, of  course,  as  the  Caliban  of  Shakespeare ;  but  if  such  a 
supernatural  being  should  suddenly  make  his  appearance  in 
an  Abolition  conventicle,  the  "  friends  of  humanity"  would  be 
as  much  astonished  as  if  an  inhabitant  of  another  world  had 
eome  among  them.  A  youth,  with  the  majestic  and  flowing 
beard  of  adult  life,  if  the  monstrosity  did  not  shock  and  disgust 
:s,  would  be  irresistibly  comical,  and  equally  so  in  the  case  of 
he  childish  and  romping  negro.  Thus,  were  the  leaders  of 
She  "anti-slavery  enterprise"  busily  engaged  in  discussing  the 
"  equal  manhood"  of  the  negro,  and  in  earnestly  denouncing 
those  who,  unable  to  see  it,  decline  to  admit  such  a  thing,  and 


104  THE     II  AIR. 

a  negro  should  enter  the  room  with  the  actual  proof  of  its  ex- 
istence— with  the  full,  flowing  beard  of  the  Caucasian,  and 
therefore  the  outward  symbol  of  an  "  equal  manhood,"  as  the 
hand  of  the  Eternal  has  revealed  it  in  the  person  of  the  former — 
the  whole  Abolition  congregation,  if  not  paralyzed  with  hor- 
ror, would  burst  into  uncontrolable  laughter.  The  wrongs  of 
the  "  slave,"  the  cruelties  of  the  master,  the  "  hopes  of  human- 
ity," the  most  doleful  stories  and  the  saddest  tales  of  the 
suffering  "bondmen,"  would  be  interrupted  by  screams  of 
laughter  at  such  a  ludicrous  spectacle  as  a  negro  with  the 
majestic  and  flowing  beard  of  the  white  man.  This  outward 
symbol  of  complete  manhood, or  this  external  indication  which 
typifies  the  high  nature  and  lofty  qualities  of  the  Caucasian, 
is  no  more  impossible,  however,  to  the  negro  than  that  "equal 
manhood"  which  is  demanded  for  him,  and  therefore  were  the 
"  friends  of  humanity"  to  vary  their  programme  and  demand 
an  "  equal"  beard,  or  that  we  shall  grant  the  negro  the  full 
and  flowing  beard  of  the  Caucasian,  they  would  render  their 
performances  more  interesting  without  giving  up  any  of  their 
"  principles,"  as  the  absurdity  is  exactly  the  same  in  either 
case. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE     FEATURES. 

The  features  reflect  the  inner  nature,  the  faculties  or  specific 
qualities,  and  they  are  distinct  or  indistinct,  developed  or  un- 
developed, as  we  ascend  or  descend  in  the  scale  of  being.  In 
the  simpler  forms  of  animal  existence,  there  is  close  resem- 
blence  to  vegetable  life  in  this  respect ;  but  ascending  to  the 
vertebrata,  and  especially  the  mammalia,  there  is  a  broad 
distinction  between  the  head  and  body,  and  instead  of  an  unde- 
fined uniformity  pervading  the  whole  exterior  surface,  the  face 
becomes  a  centre  in  which  the  essential  character  of  the  crea- 
ture is  written  by  the  hand  of  Nature.  It  is  true,  that  the 
general  form  of  the  body  is  significant  of  the  grosser  qualities. 
The  muscular  and  motive  forces  of  the  horse  are  evidently  de- 
signed for  swiftness ;  those  of  the  lion,  and  the  felinae  gener- 
ally, are  designed  both  for  strength  and  swiftness ;  while  that 
of  the  ox  and  other  mammalia  is  adapted  to  a  negative  kind 
of  strength  which  results  from  a  combination  of  all  the  physical 
forces,  and  not,  as  m  the  former  case,  from  an  excessive  muscular 
development.  But  the  higher  qualities,  even  in  animals,  are  leg- 
ibly written  in  the  face  or  features.  In  the  human  creation,  of 
course,  this  external  reflection  of  the  inner  nature  in  the  features 
becomes  vastly  more  distinct  and  real,  and  in  our  own  race  not 
unfrequently  does  the  face  become  a  very  window  of  the  soul, 
where  may  be  read  the  sweetest  and  most  exquisite  emotions 
of  a  sensitive  and  delicate  nature,  or,  as  sometimes  happens, 
the  gross  and  sensual  thoughts  of  a  depraved  and  perverted 


106  THE     FEATURES. 

one.  There  aie,  indeed,  countless  and  innumerable  variations 
in  our  own  race  in  this  respect.  The  white  or  Caucasian  men 
of  Asia,  of  Africa,  Europe,  and  America,  are  so  modified  by 
climate,  habits,  government,  religion,  etc.,  that  those  ethnolo- 
gists who  are  not  anatomists  have  sometimes  confounded 
them,  and  classed  them  as  distinct  species.  Even  on  the 
same  continent,  in  the  same  country,  sometimes  the  same  fam- 
ily, these  variations  are  so  marked  that  they  always  seem  to 
belong  to  different  species.  The  globular  head,  broad  fore- 
head, oval  cheeks,  straight  nose,  and  distinct,  well  defined  lips 
and  mouth,  however,  whatever  may  be  the  expression,  always 
remain  the  same,  and  can  never  be  confounded  with  any  other 
race  of  men.  And  these  modifications  in  the  Caucasian  are 
not  confined  to  the  face,  but  pervade  the  whole  surface.  White, 
black,  and  red  hair,  white  skin  and  brown  ones,  blondes  and 
brunettes,  are  often  found  in  the  same  family.  It  is  even 
so  in  regard  to  size — some  are  short  and  others  tall — some 
pigmies  while  others  are  giants — and  not  unfrequently  in  the 
same  household,  while  the  same  nation  exhibits  every  possible 
variety  in  this  respect.  The  Caucasian  race  alone  presents 
these  variations — the  other  races  great  uniformity ;  and  the 
negro,  lowest  in  the  scale,  presents  an  almost  absolute  resem- 
blance to  each  other.  Of  all  the  millions  that  have  existed 
on  the  earth,  their  hair  not  only  in  color  but  in  form  has  been 
absolutely  the  same,  and  such  a  being  as  a  different-colored  or 
straight-haired,  or  long-haired  negro  never  existed.  On  visit- 
ing a  plantation  at  the  South,  one  sees  a  thousand  negroes  so 
nearly  alike,  that  except  where  wide  differences  of  age  exist, 
they  are  all  alike,  and  even  in  size  rarely  depart  from  that 
standard  uniformity  that  nature  has  stamped  upon  the  race. 
The  entire  external  surface,  as  well  as  his  interior  organism,  dif- 
fers radically  from  the  Caucasian.  His  muscles,  the  form  of 
the  limbs,  his  feet,  hands,  pelvis,  skeleton,  all  the  organs  of 


THE     FEATURES.  107 

locomotion,  give  him  an  outward  attitude  that,  while  radically 
different  from  the  Caucasian,  approaches  an  almost  absolute 
uniformity  of  character  in  the  negro.  His  longitudinal  head, 
narrow  and  receding  forehead,  flat  nose,  enormous  lips  and 
protuberant  jaws,  in  short,  his  flat,  shapeless  and  indistinct  fea- 
tures strikingly  approximate  to  the  animal  creation,  and  they 
are  as  utterly  incapable  of  reflecting  certain  emotions  as  so 
much  flesh  and  blood  of  any  other  portion  of  his  body.  The 
Almighty  and  All- Wise  Creator  has  made  all  things  perfect, 
and  adapted  the  negro  features,  as  well  as  those  of  the  white 
man,  to  the  inner  nature,  but  if  it  were  true  that  the  negro  had 
certain  qualities  with  which  ignorance  and  delusion  would 
endow  him,  then  it  would  be  quite  evident  that  the  Almighty 
Creator  had  made  a  fatal  blunder  in  this  case,  for  it  is  clearly 
a  matter  of  physical  demonstration  that  the  negro  features  can- 
not reflect  these  qualities.  The  features  of  the  animal  are 
made  to  express  its  wants,  to  reflect  the  nature  God  has  given 
it.  "We  Avitness  this  every  day  among  our  domestic  animals — 
the  cat,  the  dog,  the  horse,  all  exhibit  their  qualities,  their 
wants,  their  moods,  at  different  times  their  anger,  Buffering, 
and  affection,  all  that  their  natures  are  capable  of,  are  reflected 
in  their  faces,  and  we  understand  them.  In  our  own  race,  the 
transparent  skin,  the  deeply  cut  and  distinct  features  become 
often  a  perfect  mirror  of  the  inner  nature,  and  reflect  the  nicest 
shades  of  feeling  as  well  as  the  deepest  emotions  of  the  soul. 
Envy,  anger,  pride,  shame,  scowling  hate  and  malignant  fear, 
as  well  as  gentle  affection  and  the  most  exalted  love,  are  writ- 
ten as  legibly  in  the  face  as  if  they  were  things  of  physical 
form,  and  their  innumerable  modifications  and  variations  are  wit- 
nessed all  about  us,  and  every  day  of  our  lives.  How  grandly 
this  is  displayed  in  the  case  of  the  orator !  This  must  have  been 
apparent  to  those  who  heard  Mr.  Clay  in  the  Senate,  and  saw 
those  wonderful  changes  of  feature — one  moment  convulsed 


J  08  THE     FEATURES. 

with  anger,  then  lit  up  with  genius,  or  with  pride  and  pomp 
of  conscious  power,  and  in  another  reflecting,  perhaps,  all  a 
woman's  sweetness  or  a  child's  gentleness.  Color,  of  course, 
is  essential  to  this,  for  a  display  of  the  passions  and  emotions 
on  the  dark  ground-work  of  the  negro  skin  would  be  as  impos- 
sible as  a  rainbow  at  midnight,  but  without  the  deeply  cut 
and  distinctly  marked  features  of  the  Caucasian,  color  would 
be  comparatively  useless  iu  reflecting  the  grander  emotions  of 
the  soul.  Any  one  referring  to  his  own  experience  for  a 
moment  will  see  how  impossible,  as  a  mere  physical  matter, 
that  the  negro  face  can  reflect  the  qualities  attributed  to  him 
by  those  who  are  ignorant  of  his  real  nature.  The  narrow 
and  receding  forehead,  the  shallow  eyes,  flat  nose,  almost  on 
a  level  with  the  cheeks,  the  protruding  and  enormous  lips, — the 
only  thing  that  really  can  be  said  to  be  distinct  in  the  negro 
face, — the  tout  ensemble  without  form  or  meaning  when  con- 
trasted with  the  white  man,  is,  in  connection  with  the  color, 
the  dark  ground  of  the  negro  skin,  clearly  incapable  of  re- 
flecting certain  qualities  of  our  own  race.  The  negro  has,  of 
course,  moral  emotions,  as  have  all  human  creatures,  and  his 
face, like  that  of  the  Caucasian,  is  capable  of  reflecting  all  his 
wants,  his  likes  and  dislikes,  his  hopes  and  fears,  but  every  one 
who  has  seen  him  must  know  that  the  higher  qualities  of  the 
Caucasian  cannot  find  expression  in  the  negro  features,  and 
therefore  he  does  not  possess  those  qualities,  or,  as  has  been 
said,  the  All-Wise  and  Almighty  Creator  of  all  has  committed 
a  fatal  mistake,  and  unjustly  endowed  him  with  qualities 
which  he  is  forever  forbidden  to  express ! 


CHAPTER    IX. 

LANGUAGE. 

A  few  years  since,  an  eminent  historian,  in  a  public  lecture, 
discussed  the  probabilities  of  a  universal  language  as  an  instru- 
ment of  universal  history,  and  as  means  for  the  universal  civil- 
ization of  mankind !  Another  public  lecturer  discussing  this 
subject,  and  on  a  professedly  scientific  basis,  held  that  language 
had  a  miraculous  origin,  though  the  period  when  this  super- 
natural gift  was  conferred  on  man  was  left  wholly  to  the  imagin- 
ation of  his  audience.  Others,  and  among  them  BufTon,  Prit- 
chard,  and  even  several  ethnologists,  have  scarcely  risen  above 
this  nonsense,  while  their  uses  or  application  of  this  faculty 
have  been  vastly  more  injurious  to  science  than  even  their 
original  misconceptions  on  the  general  subject. 

Language  is  naturally  divided  into  two  distinct  and  widely 
separated  portions,  having  no  necessary  connection,  though 
at  certain  points  or  stages  uniting  and  combining  together. 
First,  is  that  universal  capacity  of  expressing  itself — its  wants, 
its  sufferings,  and  its  enjoyments — which  God  has  given  to  all 
His  creatures,  from  the  insect  at  our  feet  to  the  Caucasian 
man  standing  at  the  head  of  this  vast  and  innumerable  host 
of  living  beings.  In  the  second  place,  in  its  structure  and  ar- 
rangement into  parts  or  portions  of  speech ;  in  short,  its  gram- 
matical construction.  With  the  former  it  is  alone  or  mainly 
proposed  to  deal  in  this  place,  though  it  will  be  necessary 
occasionally  to  refer  to  the  latter.  As  has  been  said,  all  living 
or  rather  all  animal  beings  have  the  faculty  of  expressing  theif 


110  LANGUAGE. 

wants,  and  they  have  a  vocal  organism  in  exact  correspon- 
dence with  these  wants  and  the  purposes  for  which  they  are 
designed  by  the  common  Creator  of  all.  Except  to  a  few 
laborious  and  enthusiastic  students  of  natural  history,  the  vast 
world  of  insect  life  is  a  terra  incognita,  but  each  one  of  these 
myriad  of  beings  is  adapted  to  some  specific  purpose  and  benefi 
cently  designed  by  the  Almighty  Master  of  Life  for  the  same 
universal  enjoyment  which  is  so  distinctly  revealed  as  the  end 
of  their  existence  in  the  more  elaborately  organized  and  higher 
endowed  classes  of  animal  being.  And  millions  of  these  mi- 
nute and  often  unseen  creatures  are  daily  and  hourly  singing 
praises  to  the  Almighty  Creator  for  His  infinite  goodness, 
rendering  the  fields  and  forests  vocal  with  the  music  of  their 
gratitude  and  the  exuberance  of  their  enjoyment.  As  we  as- 
cend in  the  scale  of  animated  existence,  the  vocal  faculty  or 
language  becomes  still  more  distinctly  revealed,  with  a  vocal 
apparatus  or  organism  in  exact  correspondence  with  the  func- 
tion or  faculty  that  God  has  given  to  the  being  in  question. 
The  pigeon,  of  course,  cannot  give  us  the  notes  of  the  canary 
bird,  nor  the  owl  sing  the  songs  of  the  nightingale.  The  ser- 
pent cannot  exchange  his  hiss  for  the  growl  of  the  tiger,  nor 
the  ass  abandon  its  uncouth  utterances  for  the  mighty  roar  or 
the  majestic  voice  of  the  lion.  Each  is  permitted  to  express 
its  wants,  its  sufferings,  and  its  joys,  and  each  is  provided  with 
a  vocal  organism  specific  and  peculiar  to  itself  and  to  its  kind, 
and  in  accord  with  the  universal  law  of  adaptation  which  in- 
separably unites  organism  with  function.  This,  then,  in  its 
elementary  form,  is  language — a  faculty  common  to  the  ani- 
mal world,  and  a  necessity  of  animal  existence.  It  differs  in 
no  essential  respect  in  regard  to  human  beings,  or  it  varies  no 
more  from  that  of  the  animal  world  than  other  functions  or 
faculties  of  the  human  being.  There  is,  it  is  true,  a  point  of 
departure  or  divergence  where  the  analog' es  of  the  animal 


LANGUAGE.  Ill 

world  are  no  longer  applicable  to  human  beings,  or  where  ani- 
mal beings  cannot  furnish  parallels  for  those  endowed  with  a 
moral  nature  and  destined  for  immortality ;  but  a  vocal  organ- 
ism with  its  corresponding  faculty  or  function  is  essentially  the 
same  thing  in  both,  and  differs  only  in  form  and  degree  among 
the  innumerable  beings  that  compose  or  are  comprised  within 
the  vast  world  of  animated  existence.  While  language,  there- 
fore, the  voice  or  faculty  by  which  animals  as  well  as  human 
beings  express  their  wants,  is  universal  and  only  varied  as  the 
structure  and  nature  are  varied,  and  while  the  vocal  organism 
is  in  exact  harmony  with  the  faculty  or  function  in  all  cases 
and  in  every  phase  of  animated  existence,  there  is  also,  and  ol 
necessity,  a  specific  modification  of  this  faculty  in  the  case  of 
the  several  human  races  or  species.  The  vocal  organs  of  the 
negro  differ  widely  from  those  of  the  white  man,  and  of  course 
there  is  a  corresponding  difference  in  the  language.  The  spe- 
cific or  the  most  essential  feature  of  the  negro  nature  is  his 
imitative  instincts,  or  his  capacity  for  imitating  the  qualities 
and  for  acquiring  the  habitudes  of  the  white  man.  This,  of 
course,  is  limited  to  his  actual  juxtaposition  with  the  superior 
race,  for  aside  from  that  organic  necessity  which  utterly  for- 
bids its  being  otherwise,  there  is  no  historical  fact  better 
attested  than  that  which  shows  him  invariably  relapsing  into 
savageism  whenever  he  is  left  without  the  restraining  support 
of  the  former.  But  for  wise  and  beneficent  purposes,  God  has 
endowed  him  with  a  capacity  of  imitation,  and  he  is  enabled 
to  apply  it  to  such  an  extent  that  those  ignorant  of  the  ne^ro 
nature  actually  offer  it  as  a  proof  of  his  equal  capacity  !  But 
with  all  his  power  to  thus  imitate  the  habits  and  to  copy  the 
language  of  the  white  man,  it  is  not  possible  that  a  single 
example  can  be  furnished  of  his  success  in  regard  to  the  latter. 
With  us,  and  especially  at  the.ISTorth,  all  are  negroes  who  are 
tainted  with  negro  blood,  and  thus  many  persons  will  imagine 


112  LANGUAGE. 

that  they  have  seen  negroes  who  were  a?  competent  to  speak 
our  language  as  white  men  themselves.  But  no  actual  or 
typical  negro  will  be  able — no  matter  what  pains  have  been 
taken  to  "  educate"  him — to  speak  the  language  of  the  white 
man  with  absolute  correctness.  European  ethnologists  have, 
notwithstanding,  sought  to  make  lansnia2;e  the  means  for  trac- 
ing  the  history  and  determining  the  character  of  races,  the 
worthlessness  and  indeed  the  absurdity  of  which  only  needs  a 
single  illustration  to  expose  it.  The  negroes  of  Hayti  have 
imitated  or  copied  the  language  of  their  former  masters,  the 
French,  therefore  they  are  of  the  same  race,  and  the  future 
ethnologists  would  pronounce  them  Frenchmen !  As  the  negro 
cannot  preserve  anything  that  he  copies  from  the  Caucasian 
beyond  a  certain  period,  the  negroes  of  that  island  are  rapidly 
losing  all  that  they  obtained  from  their  former  masters,  and 
though  the  educated  portion  on  the  coasts,  and  especially  the 
mongrels,  yet  retain  the  French  language,  those  in  the  interior 
are  rapidly  relapsing  into  their  native  African  tongue.  And  a 
century  or  two  hence,  when  the  French  is  entirely  extinct  and 
the  existing  negro  population  speak  an  African  dialect,  or 
what  is  far  more  probable,  speak  our  own,  the  ethnological 
enquirer  would  decide  that  those  led  by  Touissant  and  Chris- 
tophe  in  the  war  of  "Independence"  were  Frenchmen  instead 
of  Negroes,  because,  forsooth,  the  public  documents  of  the 
time  showed  they  spoke  the  French  language !  Thus,  while 
language  is  an  important  means  for  tracing  nationalities  or 
varieties  of  our  own  race,  as,  for  example,  the  modern  Spanish, 
French,  Italian,  etc.,  in  connection  with  the  great  Latin  family 
of  southern  Europe,  it  is  simply  absurd  to  apply  it  to  distinct 
species  like  Caucasians  and  negroes..  Each  race  or  each  spe- 
cies, as  each  and  every  other  form  of  life,  is  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  itself,  and  therefore  the  voice  of  the  negro,  both  in 
its  tones  and  its  structure,  varies  just  as  widely  from  that  of 


LANGUAGE.  113 

the  white  man  as  any  other  feature  or  faculty  of  the  negro  be- 
ing. Any  one  accustomed  to  negroes  would  distinguish  the 
negro  voice  at  night  among  any  number  of  those  of  white 
men  by  its  tones  alone,  and  without  regard  to  his  peculiar 
utterances.  Tones  or  mere  sounds  are  of  course  indescribable, 
and  therefore  no  comparison  in  this  respect  is  possible,  but  all 
those  familiar  with  the  tones  of  the  negro  voice  know  that  it 
is  never  musical  or  capable  of  those  soft  and  sweet  inflections 
or  modulations  common  to  our  own  race.  Music  is  to  the 
negro  an  impossible  art,  and  therefore  such  a  thing  as  a  negro 
singer  is  unknown.  It  is  true  that,  a  few  years  since,  certain 
amiable  people,  both  at  the  North  and  in  England,  believed 
for  a  time  that  they  had  secured  a  prodigy  of  this  kind  in  the 
person  of  the  "  Black  Swan,"  but  after  a  careful  and  patient 
trial,  it  was  found  to  be  a  mistake.  She  was  not  even  a  ne- 
gress,  though  perhaps  of  predominating  negro  blood,  and  was 
aided  and  encouraged  by  every  possible  means,  especially  in 
England,  where  she  was  actually  placed  under  the  care  of 
Queen  Victoria's  music  master,  but  without  avail — Nature  was 
superior  to  art — the  laws  of  God  more  potent  than  those  of 
human  invention — and  the  "  Black  Swan"  finally  disappeared 
from  public  view.  The  negro  is  fond  of  music,  as  are  all  other 
beings,  and  indeed  all  animal  beings  of  the  more  elevated 
classes,  but  music  is  to  him  merely  a  thing  of  the  senses.  With 
the  white  race  music  is  perceived  as  well  as  felt — an  intel- 
lectual as  well  as  sensuous  thing — and  though  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  intellectual  persons,  with  minds  above 
the  common  average,  should  also  have  musical  powers,  that 
sensitive  and  exquisite  organization  which  is  necessary  to  a 
musical  genius  must  be  united  with  a  brain  of  corresponding 
complexity.  The  brain  and  the  nerves  constitute  a  whole — a 
system — however  widely  portions  of  the  latter  may  diverge  in 
their  especial  functions,  and  it  is  as  impossible  that  the  musical 


114  LANGUAGE. 

temperament,  or  that  the  elaborate  and  exquisitely  sensuous 
system  of  the  Caucasian  could  be  united  with  the  brain  of  the 
negro,  as  it  would  be  to  unite  the  color  of  the  former  with  the 
legro  structure.  The  negro,  therefore,  neither  perceives  nor 
can  he  give  expression  to  music — he  has  neither  the  brain  nor 
the  delicacy  of  nerve  nor  the  vocal  organism  that  is  essential 
to  this  faculty — all  that  is  possible  to  him  is  a  certain  approx- 
imation through  his  wonderful  powers  of  imitation,  but  which 
is  less  available  to  him  in  this  respect  perhaps  than  any  other. 
His  brain  is  much  smaller,  but  his  nerves  are  much  larger,  and 
his  senses  are  consequently  much  more  acute,  and  here  is  the 
cause  of  that  "  musical  power"  with  which  ignorant  and  mis- 
taken persons  have  endowed  him.  Music  is  felt  by  the  nerves 
rather  than  perceived  by  the  brain,  in  his  feet  as  much  as  in 
his  head,  and  with  an  intensity  unknown  and  unfelt  by  whites. 
His  imitative  instinct  enables  him  to  rapidly  acquire  the  lan- 
guage of  his  master,  but  he  also  loses  it  with  similar  rapidity. 
The  negroes  imported  to  the  West  India  Islands,  though  liv- 
ing on  large  plantations,  soon  acquired  the  language  of  the 
few  whites,  so  far  as  words  were  concerned,  but  an  organic 
necessity  compelled  them  to  retain  the  structure  of  their  origi- 
nal tongue.  Thus,  those  in  British  islands  spoke  English, 
in  French  islands,  French,  etc.,  but  the  general  structure  re- 
mained the  same  in  all,  and  now,  when  the  external  force 
applied  by  the  several  European  governments  has  removed  the 
control  and  guidance  of  the  superior  race,  they  are  rapidly 
losing  the  words  of  their  former  masters,  and  in  this  as  well  as 
every  other  respect  returning  to  their  native  Africanism.  In 
Ilayti,  where  the  imitative  capacity  has  little  or  nothing  to 
stimulate  it,  this  process  is  very  rapid  indeed,  and  could  they 
be  entirely  isolated,  the  utter  extinction  of  the  French  language 
would  doubtless  occur  within  the  present  century. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE     SENSES. 

TnE  senses  are  those  special  organisms  that  connect  us  with 
the  outer  world  through  which  external  impressions  are  re- 
ceived and  transmitted  to  the  brain — the  great  seusorium  or 
centre  of  the  nervous  system.  They  are  popularly  designated 
as  sight,  hearing,  smelling,  toiich,  and  taste,  each  having  its 
own  peculiar  organism;  some,  as  sight,  exceedingly  elaborate, 
and  others,  like  taste,  quite  simple,  being  little  more  than  a 
delicate  expansion  of  nervous  matter  spread  upon  the  tongue 
and  lining  the  inner  surface  of  the  mouth.  The  nervous 
system  includes  the  brain  and  the  nerves,  but  is,  in  fact,  an 
indivisible  whole,  of  which  the  brain  fonns  the  centre,  and  the 
nerves  the  circumference,  in  exact  proportion  as  we  ascend  in 
the  scale  of  being.  The  centre  of  the  nervous  system  is  in- 
creased and  the  circumference  diminished  as  the  brain  becomes 
larger  and  the  nerves  smaller.  Among  quadrupeds — the  horse, 
for  example — the  nerves  are  enormously  large  in  comparison 
with  the  brain  of  that  animal ;  and  this  holds  good  through- 
out, so  that  an  intelligent  physiologist  might  determine  the 
possible  capabilities  of  any  of  the  higher  order  of  animals  by 
a  simple  comparison  of  the  brain  and  nerves.  And  in  the 
human  creation  a  single  skull  of  a  Mongol,  or  Malay,  or  Ne- 
gro, and  especially  of  the  latter,  should  be  quite  sufficient  te 
enable  a  physiologist  to  comprehend  the  essential  character  of 
the  race  to  which  it  belonged.  True,  he  might,  as  has  often 
happened,  mistake  it  for  an  abnormal  specimen  of  the  Caucasian, 


116  THE     SENSES. 

and  thus  display  a  vast  amount  of  learned  nonsense  of  the  Gall- 
Spurzhehn  order,  but  if  he  knew  it  to  be  an  actual  negro 
skull,  and  then  compared  it  with  that  of  the  Caucasian,  he  should 
be  able  not  only  to  detei*mine  the  intellectual  inferiority,  but 
the  vastly  preponderating  sensualism  of  the  former.  He  would 
see  that  the  relatively  small  cerebrum,  and  the  large  cerebel- 
lum, must  be  united  with  a  corresponding  development  of  the 
senses,  and  a  comparatively  dominating  sensualism.  The  mere 
organism  of  the  senses,  of  sight,  hearing,  etc.,  though  of  course 
differing  widely  from  those  of  the  Caucasian,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  describe,  for  even  in  animals  of  the  higher  class  there 
is  a  certain  resemblance,  and  the  student  of  anatomy  studies 
the  mechanism  of  the  eye  in  the  ox  or  horse  as  satisfactorily 
as  in  that  of  the  human  creature. 

The  organisms  while  thus, in  a  sense,  similar — of  the  eye, for 
example — in  whites  and  negroes,  is  more  elaborately  and  del- 
icately constituted  in  the  case  of  the  former,  and  therefore  it  is 
also  vastly  more  liable  to  disease,  to  congenital  defects,  to 
strabismus,  etc.,  and  especially  short-sightedness.  The  negro, 
on  the  contrary,  rarely  suffers  from  these  things,  or  even  from 
inflammation  of  the  eyes,  so  common  among  white  people,  and 
though, in  keeping  with  the  imitative  instinct  of  the  race,  the 
negro  "  preacher"  dons  spectacles  as  well  as  white  neck-cloth, 
it  may  be  doubted  if  there  ever  was  a  case  of  near-sightedness 
in  the  typical  negro.  Though  in  extreme  old  age  they  doubt- 
less lose  the  power  of  vision  common  to  their  youth,  it  is  rare 
that  negroes  need  spectacles  at  any  age.  The  organism  is 
supplied  with  a  larger  portion  of  nervous  matter  than  in  the 
case  of  the  whites,  and  the  function  or  sense  is  thus  endowed 
with  a  strength  and  acuteness  vastly  greater  than  are  the 
senses  of  the  Caucasian.  Travelers  and  others  mingling  among 
savages,  Indians,  negroes,  etc.,  have  observed  the  extraordi- 
nary power  and  acuteness  of  the  external   senses,  and  hav« 


THE     SENSES.  117 

supposed  that  this  was  a  result  of  their  savage  coudition, 
which,  calling  for  a  constant  exercise  of  these  faculties,  gave 
them  an  extraordinary  development.  And  Prit chard,  carry- 
ing this  theory  or  notion  to  an  extreme,  inferred  that  men 
were  originally  created  negroes,  for  the  exigencies  of  savage 
life  demanded,  as  he  supposed,  a  black  color  as  well  as  acute- 
ness  of  the  senses!  Doubtless  the  civilized  negro  of  America 
ordinarily  displays  less  strength  and  acuteness  of  sense  than 
his  wild  brother  of  Africa,  but  he  is  born  with  the  same  facul- 
ties, and  were  the  surrounding  circumstances  changed  so  as  to 
call  them  into  more  active  exercise,  he  would  exhibit  similar 
characteristics. 

The  Almighty  Creator,  with  infinite  wisdom,  has  adapted 
all  His  creatures  to  the  ends  or  purposes  of  their  creation. 
The  Caucasian  or  white  man,  with  his  large  brain  aud  elevated 
reasoning  powers,  is  thus  provided  with  all  that  is  necessary 
to  guard  his  safety  and  to  increase  his  happiness.  Inferior 
races,  with  smaller  brains  and  feebler  mental  powers  are  en- 
dowed with  strength  and  acuteness  of  the  external  senses  which 
enable  them  to  contend  specifically  with  surrounding  circum- 
stances and  to  provide  for  their  safety.  This  is  strikingly 
manifest  in  the  North  American  Indian  who  marks  or  makes 
a  trail  in  the  forest  which  he  follows  with  unerring  confidence, 
though  the  eye  of  the  white  man  sees  nothing  whatever. 
The  descriptions  of  Indian  character  in  Cooper's  novels  are  in 
these  respects  perfectly  correct  and  true  to  nature,  as  are 
all  those  of  the  Tidianized  white  man,  Leather-Stocking, 
Hawkeye,  etc.  The  one  depends  upon  his  senses — his  sight, 
hearing,  etc.,  the  other  on  his  powers  of  reasoning  or  reflec- 
tion, which  in  the  end  enable  him  to  "  sarcumvent"  his  Huron 
enemies  and  to  win  the  victory.  Each,  according  to  his  "gifts," 
is  able  to  fulfil  the  purposes  of  his  creation,  and  while  the  supe- 
rior intelligence  of  the  Caucasian  is  spreading  that  race,  with 


118  THE     SENSES. 

its  benign  and  civilizing  consequences,  over  the  whole  north- 
ern continent,  the  strength  and  acuteness  of  his  senses  have 
enabled  the  Indian  to  resist  to  a  degree  all  these  mighty  forces 
for  three  hundred  years. 

Some  historians  have  advanced  the  notion  that  Rome  was 
overrun  by  northern  barbarians,  similar  to  our  North  Amer- 
ican Indians,  but  if  the  mighty  hordes  led  by  Alaric  and 
Genseric  to  the  conquest  of  Italy,  had  been  Indians,  not  one 
would  have  escaped  to  tell  the  tale  of  their  destruction.  A 
high  civilization,  rotten  at  heart,  falls  an  easy  conquest  to 
ruder  and  more  simple  communities  of  the  same  race — thus, 
the  effete  and  corrupt  Roman  aristocracy  fell  before  the  sim- 
ple and  rude  populations  of  Northern  Europe,  as  the  polished 
and  scholastic  Greeks  had  succumbed  to  the  Romans,  when 
the  latter  practised  the  simple  and  hardy  virtues  of  their  ear- 
lier history.  lu  our  own  times  we  have  seen  Spain,  long 
ruled  over  by  an  effete  and  worn-out  aristocracy,  sink  from  a 
first  class  to  a  fourth  rate  power,  while  France,  relieved  from 
the  dead  weight  of  "  nobility,"  has  in  half  a  century  become 
the  leading  power  of  the  world.  And  if  the  English  masses 
have  not  sufficient  vitality  to  cast  off  the  mighty  pressure  of  a 
diseased  and  effete  aristocracy  by  an  internal  reform  like  that 
which  the  French  passed  through  in  1789,  then  it  is  certain 
that,  at  no  distant  day,  the  nation  will  fall  a  conquest  to  some 
external  power  that  has  greater  vitality  than  itself,  however 
deficient  it  may  be  in  wealth  and  learning,  and  those  refine- 
ments that  pass  for  high  civilization.  But  while  nations  ruled 
over  by  privileged  classes  thus  carry  within  them  the  seeds  of 
their  own  destruct'  jn,  and  sooner  or  later  fall  a  conquest  to 
ruder  and  simpler  societies,  the  intellectual  superiority  of  the 
white  man  always  enables  him  to  conquer  inferior  races,  what- 
ever may  be  the  disparity  of  numbers,  and  Clive  with  three 
thousand  Europeans,  attacking  the  Hindoo  horde  of  one  hun- 


THE     SENSES.  119 

dred  thousand,  or  Cortez  invading  Mexico  with  five  hundred 
followers,  amply  illustrates  the  natural  supremacy  of  the  Cauca- 
sian race.  But,  on  the  contrary,  if  the  Aztecs  had  had  the 
intellectual  capacity  of  the  Caucasian  superadded  to  their  own 
specific  qualities — the  strength  and  acuteness  of  the  senses — • 
common  to  the  native  race,  not  alone  would  Cortez  have  failed 
to  conquer  them,  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  all  Europe,  com- 
bined together  for  that  purpose,  could  have  accomplished  it. 

There  are  no  examples  for  testing  the  capabilities  of  negroes 
in  these  respects,  for  there  is  no  instance  in  history  where  they 
have  contested  the  supremacy  of  the  white  man,  the  insurrec- 
tion in  Hayti  having  been  the  work  of  the  "  colored  people" 
and  mulattoes,  and  the  negroes  only  forced  into  it  by  their  fears 
after  the  outbreak  was  complete.  But  we  have  the  actual 
physical  facts  as  well  as  our  every-day  experience  of  the  negro 
qualities,  and  therefore  can  arrive  at  positive  truth  when  com- 
paring him  with  the  superior  race.  The  large  distribution  of 
nervous  matter  to  the  organs  of  sense  and  consequent  domi- 
nating sensualism  (not  mere  animalism),  is  the  direct  cause  of 
that  extreme  sloth  and  indolence  universal  with  the  race.  The 
small  brain  and  limited  reasoning  power  of  the  negro  render 
him  incapable  of  comprehending  the  wants  of  the  future,  while 
the  sloth  dependent  on  the  dominating  sensualism,  together 
with  strong  animal  appetites  impelling  him  always  to  gross 
self-indulgence,  render  a  master  guide  or  protector  essential  to 
his  own  welfare.  Indeed  it  may  be  matter  of  doubt  which  is 
the  paramount  cause  of  the  negro's  inability  to  provide  for 
future  necessities — his  hmited  reasoning  power  or  his  indo- 
lence— his  small  brain  or  his  dominating  sensualism.  It  is  a 
statistical  fact  that  "  free"  negroes  do  not  produce  sufficient 
for  their  support,  and  consequently  that  they  tend  perpetually 
to  extinction,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  small  brain 
and  feeble  intellectual  power  render  them  incapable  of  reason- 


120  THE     SENSES. 

ing  on  the  future  rewards  of  self-denial,  and  that  the  large 
distribution  of  nervous  matter  in  the  organs  of  sense,  and 
the  consequent  sensualism  impels  them  to  gross  indulgence 
of  the  present,  and  moreover  that  they  are  in  juxtaposition, 
and  must  contend  with  white  people,  then  it  is  plain  enough 
to  see  that  it  could  not  be  otherwise,  and  that  the  total  ex- 
tinction of  these  unfortunate  beings  is  necessarily  a  question 
of  time  alone. 

But  it  is  not  the  mere  predominance  of  the  senses,  or  the 
strength  and  acuteness  of  the  sense  which  so  broadly  and  rad- 
ically separates  whites  and  negroes.  They  are  entirely  differ- 
ent in  the  manifestations  of  these  qualities.  As  has  been 
observed,  there  are  few  if  any  near-sighted  negroes,  or  negroes 
with  other  defects  of  vision,  and  the  sense  of  smell  in  negroes 
permits  them  to  discriminate  and  to  indicate  the  presence  of 
the  rattle  snake,  or  other  venomous  serpents.  And  in  respect 
to  the  sense  of  touch  or  feeling,  the  peculiarity  of  the  negro 
nature  is  perhaps  most  remarkable  of  all.  This  sense  in  the 
white  person,  though  universal  of  course,  is  mainry  located  in 
the  hand  and  fingers.  Sir  Charles  Bell,  an  eminent  English 
surgeon,  has  written  an  interesting  work — one  of  the  Bridge- 
water  treatises — on  the  flexibility  and  adaptation  of  the  human 
hand,  and  other  volumes  might  be  given  to  the  world  without 
exhausting  the  subject.  The  universal  law  of  adaptation, 
indeed,  demands  that  the  sense  of  touch,  the  flexibility  of  the 
hand,  the  delicacy  of  the  fingers,  should  be  in  accord  with  the 
large  brain  and  commanding  intellect,  otherwise  the  world 
itself  would  long  since  have  come  to  a  stand-still,  and  human 
invention  ended  with  the  antediluvians.  It  is  true  the  struc- 
ture— the  arrangement  of  the  bones,  muscles,  tendons,  etc.,  in 
short,  the  mere  mechanism  Df  the  hand,  is  essential,  but  with- 
out the  sense  of  feeling,  or  that  delicacy  of  touch  found  only 


THE    SENSES.  121 

in  the  fingers  of  the  Caucasian,  the  mechanical  perfections  of 
the  hand  would  be  comparatively  useless. 

All  the  nice  manipulations  in  surgery,  in  the  arts,  in  paint- 
ing, statuary,  and  the  thousands  of  delicate  fabrics  seen  every 
day  and  all  about  us,  demand  both  intellect  and  delicacy  of 
hand,  and  these,  too,  in  that  complete  perfection  found  alone 
in  the  Caucasian.  The  sense  of  touch,  on  the  contrary,  in  the 
negro  is  not  in  the  hand  or  fingers,  or  only  partially  so,  but 
spreads  all  over  the  surface  and  envelops  the  entire  person. 
The  hand  itself,  in  its  mere  mechanism,  is  incompatible  with 
delicate  manipulation.  The  coarse,  blunt,  webbed  fingers  of 
the  negress,  for  example,  even  if  we  could  imagine  delicacy  of 
touch  and  intellect  to  direct,  could  not  in  any  length  of  time 
or  millions  of  years  be  brought  to  produce  those  delicate  fab- 
rics or  work  those  exquisite  embroideries  which  constitute  the 
pursuits  or  make  up  the  amusements  of  the  Caucasian  female. 
The  mechanism  of  the  negro  hand,  the  absence  or  rather  the 
obtuseness  of  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  fingers,  and  the  limited 
negro  intellect,  therefore,  utterly  forbid  that  negroes  shall  be 
mechanics,  except  it  be  in  those  grosser  trades,  such  as  coop- 
ers, blacksmiths,  etc.,  which  need  little  more  than  muscular 
strength  and  industry  to  practice  them.  But  the  sense  of 
touch,  though  feeble  in  the  hand  or  fingers,  is  none  the  less 
largely  developed  as  are  the  other  senses  of  the  negro,  and 
spreads  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  body.  This  is  witnessed 
every  day  at  the  South,  where  whipping  as  with  Northern 
children,  is  the  ordinary  punishment  of  negroes.  As  in  all 
other  foolish  notions  that  spring  from  the  one  great  misconcep- 
tion— that  negroes  have  the  same  nature  as  white  people,  the 
"  anti-slavery"  people  of  the  North  and  of  Europe  labor  under 
a  ludicrous  mistake  in  respect  to  this  matter.  They  take  their 
notions  of  flogging  from  the  practice  of  the  British  army  and 
the  Russian  knout,  where  strong  men  are  cut  to  pieces  by  the 

"  6 


122  THE     SENSES. 

"  cat"  or  beaten  to  death  by  clubs,  and  they  suppose  that  pre. 
cisely  similar  barbarity  is  practiced  on  the  "  poor  slave."    And 
the   runaway  negro  has   doubtless   added  to  these  notions, 
perhaps,  without  meaning  it.     At  Abolition  conventicles  he  is 
expected,  of  course,  to  horrify  the  crowd  with  awful  tales  of 
his  sufferings,  but  having  always  had  plenty  to  eat  and  never 
overworked,  he  has  really  nothing  to  fall  back  on  but  the 
"  cruel  whippings,"  which  the  imaginations  of  the  former  read- 
ily transform  into  their  own  notions,  but  which,  in  fact,  corres- 
pond to  that  which  they  deal  out  to  their  own  children  with- 
out a  moment's  compunction.     The  sensibility  of  the  negro 
skin  closely  resembles  that  of  childhood,  and  while  there  are 
doubtless  cases  of  great  barbarity  in  these  respects,  as  we  all 
know  there  are  in  cases  of  children,  the  ordinary  flogging  of 
negroes  is  much  the  same  as  that  which  parents,  guardians, 
teachers,  etc.,  deal  out  to  white  children,  and  the  "  terrible 
lash"  so  dolefully  gloated  over  by  the  ignorant  and  deluded 
usually  dwindles  down  into  a  petty  switch  in  reality.     But 
it  is  painful  to  the  negro,  perhaps  more  so  than  hanging  would 
be,  for  while  the  local  susceptibility  of  the  skin  makes  him  feel 
the  slightest  punishment  in  this  respect,  the  obtuse  sensibility 
of  the  brain  and  nervous  system  generally  would  enable  him, 
as  is  often  manifest,  to  bear  hanging  very  well.     Those  who 
can  remember  being  flogged  in  childhood  will  also  remember 
the  great  pain  tlfat  it  gave  them,  though  now  in  their  adult 
age  they  would  laugh  at  such  a  thing.     The  negro  is  a  child 
forever,  a  child  m  many  respects  in  his  physical  as  well  as  his 
mental  nature,  and  the  flogging  of  the  negro  of  fifty  does  not 
differ  much,  if  any,  from  the  flogging  of  a  child  of  ten,  and 
while  the  British  soldier  or  Russian  would  receive  his  three 
hundred  lashes  without  wincing,  the  big  burly  negro  will  yell 
more  furiously  than  a  school-boy  when  he  receives  a  dozen 
cuts  with  an  ordinary  switch. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE     BRAIN. 

The  brain  is  the  seat  or  the  centre  of  the  intellect,  in  short, 
the  mental  organism.  The  "  school  men"  believed  that  mind, 
intellect,  the  reasoning  faculty,  whatever  we  may  term  it,  had 
no  locality  or  organism,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was  some  impal- 
pable, shadowy,  unfixed  principle  that  existed  as  much  in  the 
feet  or  hands  as  in  any  other  portion  of  the  body.  And  even 
Locke  and  Bacon,  while  they  promulgated  the  great  truths  of 
inductive  philosophy,  were  not  sufficiently  grounded  in  its  ele- 
mentary principles  to  understand  clearly  the  foundation  of 
their  own  doctrines.  Nor  did  Dugald  Stuart,  Dr.  Brown,  or 
even  the  great  Kant,  of  more  modern  times,  understand  any 
better  the  fixed  truths  on  which  rest  the  vast  and  imperfect 
systems  of  philosophy  which  they  labored  so  assiduously  to 
build  up  in  their  day.  It  remained  for  Gall,  Spurzheim,  and 
their  followers  to  do  this — to  demonstrate  certain  great  ele- 
mentary truths  which  form  a  foundation,  eternal  as  time  itself 
—for  the  mental  phenomena  to  rest  uponj  and  whatever  ad- 
vance may  be  made  hereafter  in  the  study  of  these  phenomena, 
its  basis  is  immovable.  Metaphysicians  were  wont  to  shut 
themselves  up  in  their  libraries  and  to  analyze  their  own  emo- 
tions, etc.,  which  when  noted  down,  became  afterwards  the 
material  for  ponderous  lectures  or  the  still  more  ponderous 
volumes  inflicted  on  society.  Rarely,  perhaps,  were  these  spec- 
ulations connected  with  the  brain — indeed  it  is  a  rare  thing  to 
find  a  physiologist  indulging  in  metaphysical  speculation,  while 


124 


THE     BRAIN. 


the  most  famous  among  the  "  philosophers"  were  pro  foundly 
ignorant  of  that  organ,  though  they  fancied  they  knew  all 
about  its  functions !  The  man  that  should  undertake  to  write 
a  treatise  on  respiration,  and  at  the  same  time  was  utterly 
ignorant  of  the  structure  of  the  lungs,  or  to  give  a  lecture  on 
the  circulation,  while  he  knew  nothing  of  the  blood  vessels, 
would  certainly  be  laughed  at,  and  yet  innumerable  volumes 
have  been  written,  and  continue  to  be  written,on  the  functions 
of  the  brain  or  on  "  moral  and  mental  philosophy,"  by  men 
who  never  saw  a  human  brain  in  all  their  lives !  Gall  and 
Spurzheim  did,  therefore,  a  great  good  to  the  world  when  they 
began  their  investigations  of  the  laws  of  the  mind,  by  the 
study  of  the  brain  itself  as  the  first  and  absolutely  essential 
step  to  be  taken  in  these  investigations.  It  is  true,  they,  and 
especially  their  followers,  sought  to  set  up  a  fancy  science 
under  the  name  of  Phrenology,  and  the  former  thus,  to  a  great 
extent,  neutralized  a  reputation  which  otherwise  would  have 
secured  the  respect  of  the  scientific  world.  And  it  is  also  true 
that  others  before  them  had  recognized  the  same  truths  with 
more  or  less  distinctness,  but  it  is  certain  that  Gall  and  Spurz- 
heim demonstrated  and  placed  beyond  doubt  the  great,  vital, 
and  essential  truth  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind,  and 
that  the  mental  capacity,  other  things  being  equal,  is  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  size  of  the  brain  relatively  with  the  body. 
This  truth  holds  good  throughout  the  animal  world,  and  the 
intelligence  of  any  given  animal  or  species  of  animal,  is  always 
in  keeping  with  the  size  of  the  brain  when  compared  with  the 
size  of  the  body. 

The  brain  is  composed  of  anterior  and  posterior  portions — 
of  the  cerebrum  and  the  cerebellum — the  first  the  centre  of  in- 
telligence, the  latter  of  sensation,  or  the  first  the  seat  of  the 
intellect,  and  the  latter  of  the  animal  instincts,  and  the  propor- 
tions they  bear  to  each  other  determines  the  character.    As  the 


THE     BRAIN.  125 

anterior  portion  is  enlarged  and  the  posterior  diminished  the 
creature  ascends,  or  as  the  anterior  portion  is  diminished  and 
the  posterior  portion  enlarged  it  descends,  in  the  scale  of  being. 
These  are  the  general  laws  governing  men  and  animals.    There 
is  intelligence  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  brain  compared 
•with  that  of  the  body,  and  in  the  former  there  is  intellectual 
capacity — latent  or  real — in  proportion  to  the  enlarged  cere- 
brum and  dhninished  cerebellum.     It  is  true  we  see  every  day 
seeming  contradictions  to  the  laws  in  question,  but  they  are 
not  so,  not  even  exceptions,  for  they  are  not  general  but  uni- 
versal.   Every  day  we  meet  people  with  small  heads  and  great 
intelligence,  with  large  heads  and  large  stupidities,  but  a  closer 
examination  may  disclose  the  truth  that  the  seemingly  small 
head  is  all  brain,  all  cerebrum,  all  in  front  of  the  ears,  while 
the  large  one  is  all  behind,  and  only  reveals  a  largely  developed 
animalism.     And  even  when  this  is  not  sufficient  to  explain 
the  seeming  anomaly,  there  is  a  vast  and  inexhaustible  field 
for  conjecture — of  accident — where  misapplied  or  undeveloped 
powers  have  been  the  sport  of  circumstances.     A  man  may 
have  a  large  brain,  great  natural  powers,  in  truth,  genius  of 
the  most  glorious  kind,  and  the  world  remain  in  total  ignor- 
ance of  the  fact,  and  among  the  countless  millions  of  Europe 
doomed  generation  after  generation  to  a  profound  animalism, 
there  doubtless  have  been  many  "  mute  inglorious  Miltons," 
who  have  lived  and  died  and  made  no  sign  of  the  Divinity 
within.     On  the  contrary,  there  have  been  men  of  much  dis- 
tinction— of  great  usefulness  to  their  fellows  and  to  the  gen- 
erations after  them,  who,  naturally  considered,  were  on  the 
dead  level  of  the  race,  but  by  their  industry,  perseverance,  and 
energy  have  left  undying  names  to  posterity.     Then,  again, 
circumstances  have  made  men  great.     An  epoch  in  the  annals 
of  a  nation — great  and  stirring  events  in  the  life  of  a  people — 
stimulate  and  call  into  exercise  qualities  and  capacities  that 


126  THE    BRAIN. 

make  men  famous,  who  otherwise  would  not  be  heard  of.  Our 
own  great  revolutionary  period  furnished  examples  of  this,  and 
still  later,  we  have  Jackson,  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  their 
senatorial  cotemporaries,  who  many  doubtless  think  will 
never  be  equalled,  though  their  equals  in  fact  are  in  the  senate 
now,  and  only  need  similar  circumstances  to  manifest  that 
equality. 

The  organism  of  the  race — the  species — whether  human  or 
animal,  never  changes  or  varies  from  that  eternal  type  fixed 
from  the  beginning  by  the  hand  of  God ;  and  men,  therefore, 
are  now,  in  their  natural  capacities  what  they  always  have 
been  and  always  will  be,  whatever  the  external  circumstances 
that  may  control  or  modify  the  development  of  these  capaci- 
ties. And  the  brain  being  the  organ  or  organism  of  the  mind, 
as  the  eye  is  of  the  sight  or  the  ear  of  the  sense  of  hearing,  it 
may  be  measured  and  tested,  and  its  capabilities  determined, 
with  as  entire  accuracy  as  any  other  function  or  faculty.  Not, 
it  is  true,  as  the  phrenologists  or  craniologists  contend,  that  the 
brain  reveals  the  character  of  individuals  of  the  same  species, 
but  the  character  of  the  species  itself,  and  its  relative  capabil- 
ities when  contrasted  with  other  races  or  species  of  men. 
This  is  beyond  doubt  or  question,  or  will  be  beyond  doubt  or 
question  with  all  those  who  understand  it,  and  taking  the 
Caucasian  as  the  standard  or  test,  the  capabilities  of  the  Mon- 
gol, the  Malay,  the  Aboriginal  American,  or  negro,  may  be 
determined  with  as  absolute  certainty  as  the  color  of  their 
skins  or  any  other  mere  physical  quality.  The  brain  of  the 
Caucasian  averages  ninety-two  cubic  inches,  that  of  the  negrt) 
seventy-five  to  eighty-five  inches,  while  the  bodily  proportions 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  vary.  There  are  great  variations  among 
whites  as  to  size — there  are  giants  as  well  as  dwarfs,  and 
quite  as  great  variety  in  the  form, — from  the  "  lean  and 
hungry  Cassius,"  to  the  rounded  proportions  of  a  Falstaff  or 


THE     BRAIN.  127 

Daniel  Lambert.  But  on  a  Southern  plantation  of  a  thousand 
negroes,  sex  and  age  are  the  only  difference  or  the  principal  dif- 
ference that  one  sees,  and  a  stranger  would  find  some  trouble 
to  recognize  any  other,  or  at  all  events  to  distinguish  faces. 
The  brain  of  the  negro  corresponds  in  this  respect  with  the 
body,  and  though  there  are  doubtless  cases  where  there  is 
some  slight  difference,  there  seems  to  be  none  of  those  wide 
departures  witnessed  in  these  respects  among  whites. 

The  material,  the  fibre  or  texture  of  the  brain  itself  is  little 
understood,  and  though  it  is  quite  likely  that  what  we  call 
genius  is  attended  by  a  corresponding  delicacy  or  fineness  of 
texture  in  the  nervous  mass,  and  future  exploration  in  this 
abstruse  matter  may  reveal  to  us  important  truths,  at  this  time 
little  is  known  in  regard  to  the  brain  except  the  great  funda- 
mental and  universal  law  that,  in  proportion  to  its  size  rela- 
tively with  that  of  the  body  is  there  intellectual  power,  actual 
or  latent.  Many,  doubtless,  fancy  that  there  are  immense  dif- 
ferences in  men  in  this  respect — that  a  Webster,  or  Clay,  or 
Bonaparte  are  vastly  superior  to  common  men — but  they  have 
only  to  remember  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  intellect,  to 
see  its  fallacy.  The  notion  has  sprung  from  the  habitudes  of 
European  society,  where  a  man  clothed  in  the  pomp  and  parade 
of  high  rank  is  supposed  to  be  vastly  and  immeasurably  supe- 
rior to  his  fellows,  while,  in  truth,  most  of  these,  or,  at  all 
events  many  of  these  are  absolutely  (naturally)  inferior  to  the 
base  multitudes  that  prostrate  themselves  in  the  dust  at  their 
feet.  Nevertheless,  there  are  striking  differences  in  these 
respects; not  more  so,however,  than  in  strength  of  body,  beauty 
of  features,  difference  of  hair,  complexion,  etc.  But  in  the 
case  of  the  negro  there  is  an  eternal  sameness,  a  perpetual  one- 
ness,  the  same  color,  the  same  hair,  the  same  features,  same 
size  of  the  body,  and  the  same  volume  of  brain.  All  the  phys- 
ical and  moral  facts  that  make  up  the  negro  being  irresistibly 


128  THE     BRAIN. 

lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Almighty  Creator  designed 
him  for  juxtaposition  with  the  superior  white  man,  and  there* 
fore  such  a  thing  as  a  negro  genius — a  poet,  inventor,  or  one 
having  any  originality  of  any  kind  whatever— is  totally  un- 
necessary, as  they  are  totally  unknown  in  the  experience  of 
mankind.  Some,  with  more  or  less  white  blood,  have  exhib- 
ited more  or  less  talent,  possibly  even  have  shown  eccentric 
indications  of  genius,  but  among  a  million  of  adult  typical 
negroes,  there  probably  would  not  be  a  single  brain  that  would 
vary  from  the  others  sufficiently  to  be  detected  by  the  eye, 
and  therefore  not  an  individual  negro  whose  natural  capacities 
were  so  much  greater  than  those  of  his  fellows  as  to  be  recog- 
nized by  the  reason. 

Such  are  briefly  the  leading  and  fundamental  facts  that  con- 
stitute the  mental  organism  and  distinguish  the  intellectual 
character  of  races,  that  separate  white  men  and  negroes  by  an 
interval  broader  and  deeper  than  in  any  other  forms  of  human- 
ity, and  render  an  attempted  social  equality  not  merely  a  great 
folly  but  a  gross  impiety.  As  has  been  stated,  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  volume  of  brain,  relatively  with  the  size  of  body 
in  men  and  animals,  there  is  intelligence,  and  as  the  cerebrum 
or  anterior  portion  predominates  over  the  cerebellum  or  poste- 
rior portion,  there  is  a  corresponding  predominance  of  intel- 
lectualism  over  animalism  in  the  human  races.  The  negro 
brain  in  its  totality  is  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent,  less  than  that  of 
the  Caucasian,  while  in  its  relations — the  relatively  large  cere- 
bellum and  small  cerebrum — the  inferiority  of  the  mental 
organism  is  still  more  decided ;  thus,  while  in  mere  volume, 
and  therefore  in  the  sum  total  of  mental  power,  the  negro  is 
vastly  inferior  to  the  white  man,  the  relative  proportion  of  the 
brain  and  of  the  animal  and  intellectual  natures  adds  still  more 
to  the  Caucasian  superiority,  while  it  opens  up  before  us  abun- 
dant explanations  of  the  diversified  forms  in  which  that  supe- 


THE     BRAIN.  129 

riority  is  continually  manifested.  There  are  no  terms  or  mere 
words  that  enable  us  to  express  the  absolute  scientific  superi- 
ority of  the  white  imam  We  can  only  measure  it,  or  indeed 
comprehend  it,  by  comparison,  but  this  will  be  sufficiently 
intelligible  when  it  is  said  that  the  past  history  and  present 
condition  of  both  races  correspond  exactly  with  the  size  and 
form  of  the  brain  in  each.  The  science,  the  literature,  the 
progress,  enlightenment  and  intellectual  grandeur  of  the  Cau- 
casian from  the  beginning  of  authentic  history  to  this  moment, 
and  which  have  accompanied  him  from  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
to  those  of  the  Mississippi,  are  all  fitting  revelations  of  the 
Caucasian  brain,  while  the  utter  absence  of  all  these  things — 
the  long  night  of  darkness  that  enshrouds  the  negro  being, 
and  which  is  only  broken  in  upon  when  in  juxtaposition  and 
permitted  to  imitate  his  master,  is  the  result  or  necessity  of  his 
mental  organism. 

There  being  nothing  superior  to  the  Caucasian,  it  may  be 
eaid  that  he  is  endowed  with  unlimited  powers ;  that  is,  while 
the  mental  organism  remains  the  same,  his  powers  of  acquisi- 
tion and  the  increase  of  his  knowledge  have  no  limit.  A  gen- 
eration in  the  exercise  of  its  faculties  acquires  a  certain  amount 
of  knowledge ;  this  is  transmitted  to  the  next ;  it,  in  turn, 
adds  its  proportion,  and  so  on,  each  generation  in  its  turn 
accepting  the  knowledge  of  its  progenitors  and  transmitting 
with  its  own  acquisitions  the  sum  total  to  its  successors.  This 
is  called  civilization,  and  we  can  suppose  no  limit  to  it,  excej, 
it  be  in  the  destruction  of  the  existing  order  and  a  new  creation. 
On  the  contrary,  the  negro  brain  is  incapable  of  grasping  ideas, 
or  what  we  call  abstract  truths,  as  absolutely  so  as  the  white 
child,  indeed  as  necessarily  incapable  of  such  a  thing  as  for  a  per- 
son to  see  without  eyes,  or  hear  without  ears.  In  contact  with, 
and  permitted  to  imitate  the  white  man,  the  negro  learns  to  read, 
to  write,  to  make  speeches,  to  preach,  to  edit  newspapers,  etc., 

6* 


130  THE     BRAIN. 

but  all  this  is  like  that  of  the  boy  often  or  twelve  who  debates 
a  la,  "Webster  or  declaims  from  Demosthenes.  People  ignor- 
ant of  the  negro  mistake  this  borrowed  for  real  knowledge,  as 
one  ignorant  of  metals  may  have  a  brass  watch  imposed  on 
him  for  a  golden  one.  The  negro  is  therefore  incapable  of 
progress,  a  single  generation  being  capable  of  all  that  millions 
of  generations  are,  and  those  populations  in  Africa  isolated 
from  white  men  are  exactly  now  as  they  were  when  the  He- 
brews escaped  from  Egypt,  and  where  they  must  be  millions 
of  years  hence,  if  left  to  themselves.  Of  course  this  is  no  mere 
opinion  or  conjecture  of  the  author.  It  is  a  necessity  of  the 
negro  being — a  consequence  of  the  negro  structure — a  fixed 
and  eternally  inseparable  result  of  the  mental  organism,  which 
without  a  re-creation — another  brain — could  no  more  be  other- 
wise than  water  could  run  up  hill,  or  a  reversal  of  the  law  of 
gravitation  in  any  respect  could  be  possible.  But  people, 
ignorant  of  the  elementary  principles  of  science  as  well  as  of 
the  nature  of  the  negro,  fancy  that  this  is  quite  possible ;  that, 
however  inferior  the  organism  of  the  negro  in  these  respects, 
it  is  the  result  of  many  centuries  of  savagery  and  "  slavery," 
and  therefore  if  he  were  made  "  free,"  given  the  same  rights 
with  the  same  chances  for  mental  cultivation,  that  the  brain 
might  gradually  alter  and  become  like  that  of  the  white  man ! 
This  involves  gross  impiety,  if  it  were  not  the  offspring  of 
ignorance  and  folly,  for  it  supposes  that  chance  and  human 
forces  are  more  potent  than  the  Almighty  Creator,  whose 
work  is  thus  the  sport  of  circumstances.  They  would  seek  by 
stimulating  the  mind  to  add  ten  per  cent,  to  the  negro  brain — ■ 
then  to  add  to  the  cerebrum  while  they  diminished  the  cere- 
bellum— certainly  a  work  of  much  greater  magnitude  than 
changing  the  color  of  the  negro  skin ;  but  even  the  most  igno- 
rant or  the  most  impious  among  these  people  would  scarcely 
undertake  the  latter  operation.     If  reason  could  at  all  enter 


THE     BRAIN.  131 

into  the  matter,  it  would  surely  be  more  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  mind  might  be  changed  by  acting  on  matter,  rather  than 
the  reverse,  and  therefore  it  would  be  better  to  change  the 
color  of  the  skin,as  the  first,  as  it  would  also  be  the  most  prac- 
ticable, step  to  be  taken  in  this  grand  undertaking  of  setting 
aside  the  Creator  and  re-creating  the  negro.  But,  after  all, 
their  labors  would  fail — after  they  had  changed  the  color,  after 
they  had  increased  the  volume  of  the  brain  and  duly  modified 
its  relations  as  well  as  altered  its  texture — in  short,  when  they 
had  turned  him  into  a  white  man,  then  all  would  be  in  vain, 
for  such  a  brain  could  no  more  be  born  of  a  negress  than  an 
elephant  could  be! 


CHAPTER    XII. 


GENERAL      SUMMARY 


In  the  several  preceding  chapters,  those  outward  character, 
istics  that  specifically  distinguish  the  negro  have  been  briefly 
considered.  It  has  been  shown  that  color,  the  hair,  the  figure, 
the  brain,  etc.,  are  simply  facts  out  of  many  millions  of  facts 
that  separate  the  races ;  that  each  and  all  of  them  are  original, 
invariable,  and  everlasting,  and  the  exception,  or  the  absence 
of  any  of  them,  or  of  any  of  the  associated  facts  not  enumera- 
ted, at  any  time, in  the  case  of  a  single  individual  or  any  gener- 
ation, or  under  any  possible  circumstances  of  time,  climate,  or 
external  agencies  whatever,  is,  or  would  be,  necessarily  impos- 
sible. Nature  is  always  true  to  herself,  and  even  in  those 
abnormal  specimens  sometimes  presented  to  our  observation — 
those  so-called  monstrosities — there  is,  properly  speaking,  no 
departure  from  her  original  designs,  or  from  those  fixed  and 
eternal  laws  that  govern  organic  life.  We  sometimes  see 
Albinos,  but  except  a  certain  tinge  to  the  color,  itself  totally 
unlike  any  color  in  other  races,  the  absolute  negro,  that  is  the 
millions  of  facts  that  constitute  the  negro  being,  are  un- 
touched. We  witness  all  kinds  of  abnormal  development  in 
our  own  raee,  in  animals,  in  the  vegetable  world,  in  all  the 
innumerable  beings  and  things  that  surround  us.  For  example 
— let  any  one  spend  an  autumn  day  in  the  forest,  and  turn  his 
attention  to  the  strange  and  often  ludicrous  sights  that  sur- 
round him.  It  often  seems  as  if  nature  delighted  herself  in 
ti eating  odd  and  uncouth  shapes,  as  if  intended  for  relaxation 


GENERAL     SUMMARY.  133 

and  relief  from  lier  graver  and  grander  labors.  But  even  here 
there  is  no  violation  of  the  higher  aw — the  order  of  nature 
though  very  often  interrupted  by  accident,  is  never  contra- 
dicted— the  abnormal  development,  the  most  uncouth  and  mon- 
strous consequences  are  still  pervaded  by  the  eternal  decree 
stamped  upon  the  whole  universe,  that  forbids  forever  any 
change  in  the  minutest  atom  of  this  mighty  mass  of  life.  The 
Albino,  the  deformed  or  monstrous  Negro,  the  seemingly  wide 
departure  from  the  normal  standard,  still  obeys  the  higher 
law.  All  the  peculiarities  that  distinguish  him  from  his  race 
are  sui  generis,  without  any  approximation  or  resemblance  to 
the  white  man.  So,  too,  with  the  latter,  and  so,  too,  with  all 
monstrosities  in  the  lower  animals.  The  things  that  constitute 
the  monstrosity,  that  separate  the  creature,  or  seem  to  do  so, 
from  his  own  kind,  separate  him  also  from  other  species, 
whether  of  men  or  animals.  The  eternal  gulf,  the  impassable 
barrier,  the  decreed  limits  fixed  by  the  Creator  himself,  are 
never  passed.  A  negro,  with  the  color,  or  the  hah-,  or  the 
language,  or  the  brain,  or  the  sense  of  touch,  or  taste,  or  sight 
of  the  Caucasian,  would  not  be  a  monstrosity  but  an  impossi- 
bility. He  might  differ  very  widely  from  his  own  race  in  any 
one  of  these  things,  as  we  actually  witness  in  the  case  of 
Albinos,  in  fact  might  retain  scarcely  any  outward  resemblance 
to  his  kind,  and  yet  exist ;  but  none  has  ever  had,  or  ever  will 
have,  an  existence  that  has  any  thing  in  common  with  the 
white  man,  for  that  woidd  contradict  the  universal  order  of 
God  himself. 

Such  being  the  fact,  all  that  is  external  or  tangible  to  the 
sense  being  thus  widely,  immeasurably,  and  indestructibly 
different  from  the  Caucasian  or  white  man,  it  is  obvious  that, 
in  all  beyond  the  outer  surface,  the  same  relative  differences 
must  exist.  It  was  originally  intended  to  demonstrate  this  in 
detail — to  show  the  actual  anatomical  facts  and  structural  dif« 


134  GENERAL     SUMMARY. 

ferences  in  the  organs,  the  tissues,  the  systems,  down  to  the 
minutest  atom  of  the  bodily  structure.  It  was  designed  to 
present  the  reader  with  numerous  plates,  showing  all  this — 
the  minutest  particle,  the  single  globule  of  blood,  even, 
painted  after  the  employment  of  the  microscope,  being  suffi- 
ciently palpable  to  the  sense,  to  show  that  the  primordial 
atoms  of  the  negro  structure  are  as  specifically,  and  relatively 
as  widely,  different  from  the  white  man's  as  the  color,  the  hair, 
or  any  of  those  outward  qualities  that  confront  us  daily  in  the 
streets.  But  this  would  have  added  so  much  to  the  expense 
of  the  work,  as  to  often  place  it  out  of  the  reach  of  the  day 
laborer  and  working  man,  those  who  alone,  or  mainly,  need  to 
understand  the  great  "  anti-slavery"  imposture  of  our  times, 
and  the  world-wide  conspiracy  against  their  freedom,  man- 
hood and  happiness,  which  has  so  long  held  them  in  abject 
submission  to  its  clamorous  pretences  of  philanthropy  and  hu- 
manity. Nor  is  it  at  all  essential.  A  moment's  reflection  or 
consideration  is  quite  sufficient  to  convince  any  rational  mind 
that  the  outward  differences  must  have  then  counterpart  in 
the  entire  structure.  Of  course  any  thing  exceptional — a  blem- 
ish, a  congenital  deformity  on  the  surface — has  no  correspond- 
ing relation  with  the  interior,  but  that  which  is  specific,  uni- 
form, and  invariable,  as  the  color,  the  hah1,  the  features,  etc., 
must  of  necessity  pervade  the  tout  ensemble  of  being,  whether 
human,  animal,  or  vegetable.  The  apple,  pear,  peach,  etc., 
have  their  own  specific  features  externally,  and  their  corre- 
sponding qualities  internally.  The  shad  differs  from  the  salmon 
in  its  absolute  structure  equally  with  its  outward  appearance. 
The  whole  anatomical  arrangement  of  the  horse  differs  as 
widely  from  that  of  the  ass  as  the  outward  features  vary, 
And  the  entire  bodily  structure  of  the  negro,  down  to  the  mi- 
nutest atom  of  elementary  matter,  differs  just  as  widely,  of 
course,  as  the  color  of  the  skiu  or  other  external  qualities,frorn 


GENERAL     SUMMARY.  135 

those  of  the  white  man.  It  is  equally  palpable  to  the  reason 
that  the  nature  of  the  negro,  his  instincts,  all  the  faculties  of 
his  mind,  and  all  the  functions  of  his  body,  are  pervaded  by 
the  same  or  by  relative  differences  from  those  of  the  Caucasian. 
To  suppose  otherwise  is  not  to  suppose  a  monstrosity,  for,  as 
has  been  remarked,  monstrosities,  however  wide  the  departure 
from  the  normal  standard, are  sui  generis,  without  any  approx- 
imation to  different  beings — but  such  things  are  simply  impos- 
sible. As  it  is  plainly  impossible  that  any  being  could  exist 
half  like  or  half  unlike  any  other  creature,  so,  too,  it  is  obvious 
that  beings  with  different  structures  could  not  possess  the 
same  qualities  or  manifest  the  same  nature.  Can  any  one 
imagine  an  apple  with  the  qualities  of  the  pear  or  peach,  or 
even  of  another  apple  that  differed  from  it  in  its  material  struc- 
ture? Can  it  be  supposed  that  a  Hon  could  ever  have  the 
nature  of  the  tiger,  or  panther,  or  cat,  or  of  any  of  the  felina  ? 
Can  it  be  believed  that  a  bull-dog  ever  manifested  the  nature 
of  a  hound,  or  that  the  mastiff  or  spaniel  could  be  made  to 
exhibit  the  specific  qualities  of  either  ?  No,  indeed.  Nature 
makes  no  mistakes,  nor  does  the  Almighty  Master  of  life  per- 
mit His  creatures  to  violate  or  transcend  His  eternal  decrees. 

It  being,  therefore,  an  invariable,  indestructible,  and  eternal 
law,  that  the  outward  qualities  are  exactly  harmonized  with 
the  interior  structure  down  to  the  minutest  atom  of  elemen- 
tary particles  and  equally  invariable  and  everlasting  that  the 
organism  is  in  harmonious  correspondence  with  the  functions, 
the  instincts,  in  a  word,  the  nature,  we  are  able  to  understand, 
with  absolute  certainty,  the  specific  qualities,  and  to  approach 
with  tolerable  certainty  the  relative  differences  and  actual  in- 
terval that  separate  the  white  and  black  races.  The  figures 
of  the  plate  in  the  opening  of  this  work  indicate  these  vital 
and  all-important  truths. 

The  first  figure  exhibits  the  typical  Caucasian,  not  the  curti- 


136  GENERAL     SUMMARY. 

vated  man  of  our  time,  but  the  "  barbarian,"  the  Oriental — the 
cotemporary  with  David,  Solomon,  Cyrus,  and  others  of  re- 
mote antiquity.  The  second  figure  is  the  Negro  of  the  same 
period,  as  found  on  the  monuments,  and,  at  the  present  time,  in 
all  those  portions  of  Africa  where  the  negro  is  isolated,  and 
there  are  no  debris  of  other  races  existing  among  them. 
By  himself  he  never  changes  in  his  outward  manifestations. 
One  generation  is  as  a  million  of  generations,  and  therefore  the 
thousands  now  annually  imported  into  Cuba  are  seen  to  be 
just  as  this  figure  represents  him  four  thousand  years  ago. 

ISTor  is  the  figure  of  the  Caucasian  changed,  for  though  the 
American  of  to-day  is  at  an  immeasurable  distance  in  knowl- 
edge, the  actual  physical  and  intellectual  man  remains  the 
same  as  this  figure  represents  him  four  thousand  years  ago. 
Both  figures  have  the  same  color,  and  yet  the  specific  differ- 
ences are  none  the  less  palpable — the  Caucasian  and  Negro 
type  being  equally  distinct  and  widely  different. 

The  third  figure  is  an  American — a  white  man  of  to-day — 
whose  intellectual  development,  refinement  of  mind  and  man- 
ners, costume  and  habitudes  are  widely  different;  nevertheless, 
the  physical  qualities  and  specific  capabilities  are  the  same  as 
those  of  his  Oriental  ancestors  of  by-gone  generations. 

The  fourth  figure  is  an  American  Negro,  but  a  typical 
Negro  without  taint  or  admixtxu-e  with  other  races.  His  fea- 
tures, moulded  and  softened  by  juxtaposition  with  the  Cauca- 
sian, present  a  great  improvement,  certainly,  over  the  isolated 
or  African  type,  but  the  organism,  the  actual  physical  and 
mental  nature  remains  the  same. 

The  white  man  is  least  and  the  negro  most  affected  by  exter- 
nal agents,  such  as  climate,  time,  systems  of  government,  etc. 
The  fourth  figure  in  contrast  with  the  isolated  negro  of  Africa, 
exhibits  a  certain  degree  of  improvement,  progress,  or  advance 
that  illustrates  the  actual  capabilities  of  the  race  when  placed 


GENERAL     SUMMARY.  137 

tinder  circumstances  favorable  to  its  development.  The  size 
of  the  brain,  the  actual  organism  and  absolute  nature,  of  course, 
remains  unaltered,  just  as  all  these  things  remain  unchanged 
and  unchangeable  in  the  uneducated  white  laborer  of  our  own 
times ;  but  the  negro,  in  juxtaposition  with  the  superior  race, 
becomes  educated,  and  all  his  latent  capabilities  fully  devel- 
oped. Thus,  while  the  color,  the  hair,  the  entire  organism  is 
just  what  it  was  thousands  of  years  ago,  and  what  it  must  be 
forever,  or  as  long  as  the  present  order  of  creation  continues, 
there  is  a  certain  modification  in  the  features  and  still  greater 
changes  in  the  expression.  The  uncouth  and  uneducated  Eu- 
ropean laborer  contrasted  with  the  educated  classes,  or  with  the 
generality  of  Americans,  exhibits  a  wide  difference,  not  so 
much  in  the  features  as  in  the  expression ;  and  though  the  negro 
in  Africa  is  in  a  far  more  natural  position,  relatively  consid- 
ered, than  the  European  laborer,  the  negro  in  our  midst  ex- 
hibits, perhaps,  even  a  greater  difference  over  his  isolated 
brother.  And  if  we  suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  the  masses 
of  English  laborers  were  educated,  fed  on  the  same  fare,  and 
subject  to  the  same  circumstances  as  the  English  nobles,  then 
we  may  form  a  reasonable  estimate  of  the  relative  advance  of 
the  American  over  the  African  negro.  The  former  would  dif- 
fer in  no  respect  whatever  from  the  privileged  and  educated 
class,  and  if  all  the  negroes  of  Africa  were  brought  here  or 
were  placed  in  juxtaposition  and  natural  relation  with  the 
sxiperior  race,  they  would  exhibit  the  same  characteristics  com- 
mon to  our  so-called  slaves,  and  the  fourth  figure  in  this  plate 
would  doubtless  present  a  typical'  illustration  of  them.  A 
good  many  people,  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  organism,  suppose 
that  our  negro  population  have  made  a  great  advance  over 
the  wild  and  barbarous  tribes  of  Africa,  and,  as  shown  by  the 
second  and  fourth  figures  in  the  plate,  this  is  so,  but  it  is  only 
in  the  outward  expression,  while  the  essential  nature  is  ever 


138  GENERAL     SUMMARY. 

the  same.  The  negro  infant,  for  example,  brought  from 
Africa  and  placed  under  existing  circumstances  in  Mississippi, 
would  be  represented  by  the  fourth  figure,  while  the  infant 
born  here  and  carried  to  Africa  to  grow  up  with  the  wild 
tribes  of  the  interior,  would,  on  the  contrary,  be  illustrated  by 
the  second  figure  of  the  plate. 

There  are  a  multitude  of  moral  considerations  involved,  of 
course,  and  that  cannot  be  measured  or  tested  by  material 
illustrations,  but  we  may  form  a  reasonable  estimate  of  the 
superiority  of  condition  and  of  the  greater  happiness  of  the 
negro  over  his  African  brethren,  by  a  simple  comparison 
of  these  figures.  As  has  been  observed,  it  corresponds  with 
the  difference  between  the  educated  and  non-educated  white 
man,  but  it  is  greater,  for  the  negro  is  more  affected  by 
external  circumstances,  and  therefore  while  the  actual  size  and 
relations  of  the  negro  brain  and  the  specific  nature  of  the 
negro  are  unalterable,  the  outward  form  of  his  head  as  well  as 
the  expression  of  his  face  is  strikingly  improved  over  that  of 
the  typical  African. 

In  general  terms,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  "  American  slave" 
is  educated  and  the  isolated  African  negro  is  not;  that  the 
former  is  civilized  and  the  latter  a  barbarian ;  that,  though  in 
a  sense  in  a  natural  position  (for  he  multiplies  in  Africa),  he  is 
in  his  normal  condition  only  when  in  juxtaposition  and  natural 
relation  to  the  superior  white  man.  It  is  sometimes  supposed 
that  the  negro  is  incapable  of  progress,  and  so,  of  course,  he 
is  when  isolated  from  the  superior  race,  but  when  placed  in 
nis  normal  condition,  and  his  imitative  capacities  called  into 
action,  he  is  capable  of  progress  to  a  certain  extent.  God, 
while  endowing  him  with  widely  different  and  vastly  inferior 
faculties,  has  gifted  him  with  imitative  capacities  so  admirable, 
that  those  who  are  ignorant  of  his  real  nature  mistake  them 
for  those  of  the  white  man.     Like  children,  like  the  inferioi 


GENERAL     S  U  M  M  A.  R  Y  .  139 

animals,  and  like  all  other  inferior  races,  he  naturally  imitates 
the  superior  being ;  but  beyond  this  general  tendency  common 
to  all  subordinate  creatures,  there  is  a  peculiar  capacity  in  the 
negro  in  this  respect,  which,  more  than  anything  else,  war- 
rants us  in  terming  it  the  specific  feature  of  the  race.  Placed 
in  his  normal  condition,  he  becomes  intelligent,  civilized,  pious, 
industrious,  and  if  his  master  is  a  man  of  refined  mind  and 
dainty  habits,  the  negro  becomes  so,  even  more  than  children 
who  imitate  the  habitudes  of  their  parents.  Thus,  it  will  be 
seen  on  Southern  plantations  generally,  that  they  correspond 
with  their  masters,  and  if  the  habits  and  practices  of  the  for- 
mer are  moral  and  Christian-like,  the  negroes  approximate  to 
the  same  standard.  On  the  contrary,  if  they  are  under  the 
guidance  of  coarse  and  brutal  masters,  or  are  left  with  nothing 
to  imitate  but  the  habits  of  a  gross  and  tyrannical  overseer, 
then  they  become  idle,  vicious,  and  thieving ;  and  take  every 
chance  that  offers  to  rim  away  from  their  homes. 

In  speaking  of  negro  education,  of  course  no  such  meaning 
as  that  applied  to  white  people  is  intended.  Reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  etc.,  have  uo  relation  or  connection  with  the  devel- 
opment of  the  negro  powers.  He  simply  needs  to  be  in  a 
position  where  the  imitative  capacity  with  which  God  has  so 
beneficently  endowed  him  is  most  completely  called  into  action, 
and,  as  has  been  observed,  he  then  becomes  an  industrious, 
moral,  and  well-behaved  creature,  or  he  is  idle,  sensual,  vicious 
and  worthless,  just  as  the  master  or  overseer  pleases  to  make 
him.  There  are  doubtless  exceptional  instances,  but  with  all 
the  wide-spread  and  boundless  effort  of  the  ignorant  and  de- 
luded people  in  England  and  America  to  seduce  them  from 
their  homes,  there  are  probably  but  few  negroes — real  negroes 
— who  ever  abandoned  their  masters,  unless  their  education 
had  been  neglected.  The  instinct  of  the  negro  is  obedience  to 
his  master,  and  the  strongest  affection  of  his  nature — far  above 


140 


GENERAL     SUMMABY. 


that  for  \as  wife  or  offspring — is  for  the  master  who  feeds, 
guides,  and  cares  for  him,  indeed  is  his  Providence ;  and  hia 
utter  horror  of  migration,  unless  it  be  with  his  mastei",  these 
qualities,  so  dominant  in  the  negro,  would  be  or  might  be 
made  a  barrier  of  protection  against  outside  seductions,  were 
they  properly  understood  and  appreciated  by  those  having 
them  in  charge.  This  negro  education,  civilization,  progress 
in  fact,  which-the  negro  is  capable  of  when  in  his  normal  con- 
dition, and  his  imitative  capacities  are  permitted  a  healthy  de- 
velopment, of  course  is  rapidly  lost  when  isolated  from  the 
white  man.  If  the  four  millions  now  in  our  midst  were  sud- 
denly left  to  themselves,  but  a  few  years — probably  within 
fifty — everything  that  now  distinguishes  them — that  is,  all 
that  they  have  imitated  from  the  superior  race — would  become 
extinct. 

Leaving  out  of  the  consideration  mulattoes  and  mongrels, 
and  taking  into  view  simply  the  negro — the  four  millions  of 
negroes  of  untainted  blood  which  now  exist  in  our  midst — it 
is  reasonable  to  say  that,  fifty  years  hence,  there  would  not  be 
one  that  would  speak  his  present  language,  that  would  be  a 
Christian,  that  would  retain  his  name,  or  any  other  thing  what- 
ever which  he  now  possesses  and  has  imitated  from  his  mas- 
ters. This  may  seem  a  startling  declaration  to  many  who  five 
in  daily  contact  with  these  people,  while  by  those  ignorant  and 
deplorably  deluded  parties  who  fancy  that  they  are  engaged  in 
a  work  of  humanity  when  seeking  to  undo  the  work  of  the 
Almighty  Creator,  by  turning  black  into  white  and  the  negro 
into  a  Caucasian,  it  will  scarcely  be  understood ;  but  it  in- 
volves a  truth  that  may  be  easily  and  plainly  illustrated.  A 
very  large  portion  of  our  negroes  are  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  those  brought  from  Africa,  and  not  a  few, 
perhaps,  were  themselves  brought  in  by  the  "  slave  trade," 
which  it  will  be  remembered  was  continued  down  to  1808. 


GENEBAL    8  U  M  M  A  E  Y  .  141 

Now  of  all  these  there  probably  is  not  one  that  can  speak 
the  language  of  his  progenitors,  not  one  that  retains  his  Afri- 
can religion  or  the  slightest  relic  of  African  history  or  tradition, 
not  one  with  even  an  African  name,  and  if  they  have  thus  rap- 
idly lost  all  that  they  possessed  of  their  own,  that  was  original 
and  specific,  of  course,  if  isolated  from  their  masters,  they  would 
still  more  rapidly  lose  that  which  they  have  imitated  from  a 
superior  race. 

Such,  then,  is  the  negro — the  lowest  in  the  scale  as  the  Cau- 
casian is  the  most  elevated  in  the  human  creation — a  creature 
not  degraded — for  none  of  God's  creatures  are  degraded — but 
that  is  widely  different  and  vastly  subordinate  to  the  elabor- 
ately organized  and  highly  endowed  white  man.  The  specific 
qualities  are  not  matters  of  opinion  but  of  fact,  thdt  appeal  to 
our  senses  at  every  step,  but  the  specific  differences  and  actual 
intervals  that  separate  races,  though  often  susceptible  of  suc- 
cessful illustrations,  must  to  a  great  extent  be  determined  by 
experience.  The  author  has  attempted  to  define  these  differ- 
ences in  some  essential  respects,  and  believes  he  has  succeeded 
with  sufficient  exactitude  to  warrant  correct  conclusions  in 
respect  to  the  almost  innumerable  things  that  could  not  be 
discussed  nor  even  alluded  to  in  a  work  of  this  kind.  We 
have  this  race  among  us — they  or  their  descendants  must  re- 
main an  element  of  our  population  forever.  It  is  doubtless  the 
design  of  the  Almighty  that  the  Caucasian  and  negro,  under 
certain  circumstances  which  will  be  considered  elsewhere, 
should  exist  in  juxtaposition,  and  therefore  a  specific  knowl- 
edge of  this  race,  and  its  true  relations  to  our  own,  is  the  most 
vital  and  indeed  transcendent  question  or  consideration  that 
was  ever  presented  to  a  civilized  and  Christian  people.  Nor 
can  this  be  delayed  or  pushed  aside,  for  even  now  the  nation 
is  rapidly  drifting  into  serious  difficulties  and  possibly  terrible 
calamities,  in  consequence  of  that  wide-spread  ignorance  an'] 


142 


GENERAL     SUMMARY. 


misconception  prevalent  in  regard  to  the  negro's  nature  and  his 
true  relations  to  the  white  man.  The  blind  and  stupid  warfare 
waged  so  long  upon  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South,  has 
doubtless  thus  far  injured  the  negro  most,  and  it  may  be  de- 
monstrated with  ease  that  the  worst  and  most  brutal  master 
ever  known  could  not  inflict  so  much  misery  on  the  negro  as 
the  so-called  friend  of  freedom,  who,  in  utter  ignorance  of  the 
negro  nature,  would  force  him  to  live  out  the  life  of  a  widely 
different  being.  But  the  time  has  come  when  this  ignorance 
and  delusion  threatens  to  involve  the  whole  framework  of 
American  society,  and  nothing  but  the  simple  truth — the  re- 
cognition of  the  actual  and  unchangeable  facts  fixed  eternally 
by  the  hand  of  God,  can  save  the  nation  from  dire  calamities. 


:p  a.  r  t     ii. 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

MULATTOISM  AND  MONGRELISM. 

All  the  generic  and  specific  forms  of  life  are  governed 
by  their  own  peculiar  laws  of  interunion,  and  hybridism  or 
hybridity  is  therefore  a  phenomenon  of  varying  character, 
having,  it  is  true,  certain  resemblances  in  those  instances 
which  approach  each  other,  but  absolutely  different  in  all  cases. 
Naturalists  have  somethnes  made  great  blunders  in  this  re- 
spect, for  they  have  assumed  that  hybridism  was  governed  by 
the  same  laws  in  all  cases,  and  therefore  sought  its  application 
or  inferred  its  presence  in  instances  the  most  remote  and  con- 
tradictory. The  most  extraordinary,  and,  indeed,  inexcusable 
instance  of  the  kind  has  been  seen  in  the  efforts  made  to  con- 
found the  distinctions  of  race,  and  to  pervert  truth  into  the 
most  shameful  and  what  would  seem  to  be  the  most  palpable 
falsehoods.  It  has  been  assumed  by  naturalists  of  high  char- 
acter that  different  genera  never  produce  offspring,  that  the 
offspring  of  different  species  are  incapable  of  reproduction, 
and  that  varieties  are  unlimited  in  their  powers  of  virility. 
If,  therefore,  there  were  doubt  in  respect  to  the  character  of 
certain  (supposed)  genera,  and  it  was  found  that  offspring  fol- 
lowed a  conjunction  of  sexes,  in  this  particular  instance,  it 
was  inferred  that  they  were  merely  different  species.  And  if 
the  product  or  progeny  of  these  species  were  found  to  be 


144  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGEELISM. 

equally  virile,  then  it  was  inferred  that  they  were  all  originally 
of  the  same  species,  and  nothing  but  varieties.  This  test,  so 
simple  that  it  can  hardly  be  mistaken,  serves  with  sufficient 
accuracy  to  determine  the  real  character,  and  when  the  natur- 
alist properly  applies  the  laws  of  hybridity,  that  is,  admits  a 
modification  of  these  laws  in  all  cases  or  in  all  the  different 
genera  subjected  to  his  examination,  then  he  is  armed  with  suf- 
ficient data  to  render  his  labors  accurate  and  effective.  But 
however  pains-taking  or  correct  in  other  particulars,  when  he 
assumes  that  hybridity  is  a  unit,  and  rigidly  applies  this  in  all 
cases,  or  to  families  widely  remote  in  other  respects,  his  labors, 
from  this  defect,  must  be  comparatively  valueless. 

The  instance  already  referred  to,  where  hybridity  was  thus 
presented,  was  as  follows : — The  mule,  as  is  well-known,  is  the 
offspring  of  the  horse  and  ass.  It  does  not,  in  its  turn,  repro- 
duce itself,  therefore  the  horse  and  ass  were  different  species. 
Prichard  and  others  applied  this  test,  or  marked  this  test,  in 
the  case  of  human  beings,  of  whites  and  negroes,  and  proved 
by  it  that  they  were  of  the  same  species.  It  was  seen  that 
white  men  cohabited  with  negro  women,  and  the  offspring  in 
turn,  reproduced  itself,  and  consequently  that  the  parents  were 
of  the  same  species.  Or,  as  this  has  passed  as  current  coin 
hitherto,  and  seemed  perfectly  satisfactory,  indeed  wholly  un- 
answerable to  naturalists  and  men  of  science  as  well  as  others, 
it  is  best,  perhaps,  to  place  it  in  distinct  and  categorical  terms 
before  the  reader.  1st.  It  is  universally  admitted  by  natural- 
ists that  incapacity  in  the  offspring  to  reproduce  itself  demon- 
strates the  different  species  of  the  progenitors,  while,  on  the 
contrary,  a  capacity  in  the  offspring  to  beget  offspring  in  its 
turn  demonstrates  similarity  of  species  in  the  progenitors. 
2d.  The  mule,  or  the  offspring  of  the  horse  and  ass,  does  not 
reproduce  itself,  therefore  the  horse  and  ass  are  different  species. 
3d.  The  mulatto  offspring  of  the  white  man  and  negro  woman 


MULATTOISM    AND    MONGEELI8M.  145 

does  beget   offspring,  therefore   the  white   man   and  negro 
woman  are  of  the  same  species. 

This  was  the  assumption  and  the  reasoning  of  Prichard  and 
other  European  ethnologists,  and  if  hybridity  were  a  unit,  or 
principle  of  rigid  and  uniform  character  in  all  cases,  in  human 
beings  as  in  animals  and  vegetables,  in  the  case  of  the  white 
man  and  negress,  exactly  as  in  that  of  the  horse  and  ass — then, 
indeed,  would  the  inference  seem  unavoidable  that  whites  and 
negroes  constituted  in  fact  a  single  species.  But  they  were 
guilty  of  two  fundamental  errors  in  this  matter — an  error  of 
fact,  and  an  error  of  reasoning,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more 
correct  to  say  that  both  were  errors  of  fact.  At  all  events, 
facts  that  demonstrate  difference  of  species  in  whites  and  negroes 
beyond  possibility  of  doubt  were  distorted  into  proofs  which 
seemed  to  demonstrate  sameness  or  similarity  of  species  with 
equal  certainty. 

Hybridity,  as  has  been  said,  is  not  a  unit,  is  not  a  fixed, 
uniform  law  or  principle.  A  moment's  consideration  is  suffi- 
cient to  convince  any  intelligent  mind  of  this  truth.  Each 
form  of  life  has  necessarily  its  own  character,  its  own  specific 
qualities,  and  the  laws  governing  its  reproductive  powers  must 
be  in  correspondence,  and  just  as  differently  manifested  as  any 
of  its  specific  qualities.  To  suppose  that  the  laws  of  the  phe- 
nomena  governing  the  reproductive  functions  of  the  horse  and 
ass  are  exactly  similar  to  those  manifested  in  the  case  of 
human  beings,  is  as  absurd  as  to  suppose  that  the  term  of  ges- 
tation, the  length  of  fife,  the  mode  of  their  locomotion,  or  any 
other  qualities — should  be  exactly  the  same  in  both  cases. 
But  nothing  more  need  be  said.  It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  the 
laws  of  reproduction  must  be  radically  different  in  the  human 
creatures,  and  therefore  the  inference  of  Pritchard  and  others, 
that  whites  and  negroes  were  of  the  same  species,  because  the 
mulatto,  unlike  thu  male,  did  reproduce  itself,  is  simply  absurd, 

V 


]48  MULAITOISM     AND     MONGRELISM. 

But  they  were  still  further  and  still  more  vitally  mistaken  in 
respect  to  their  assumptions  of  fact.  The  mulatto,  literally 
speaking,  or  in  the  ordinary  sense,  does  beget  offspring,  but 
mulattoism  is  as  positively  sterile  as  muleism.  The  phenom- 
enon of  hybridity  is  manifested,  as  has  been  stated,  in  confor- 
mity with  the  nature  of  the  beings  concerned,  and  as  the  human 
creatures  are  separated  by  an  almost  measureless  as  well  as 
impassable  distance  from  the  horse  and  ass,  the  laws  of  hybrid- 
ity are,  of  course,  correspondingly  different.  Instead  of  a 
single  generation,  as  in  the  animals  referred  to,  sterility  in  the 
human  creatures  is  embraced  within  four  generations,  where  a 
boundary  is  arrived  at  as  absolutely  fixed  and  impassable  as 
the  single  generation  in  the  case  of  the  former. 

But  in  order  to  understand  the  matter  clearly,  it  is  proposed 
to  present  the  reader  with  the  preliminary  principles  or  facts, 
and  inductive  facts,  that  lead  to  this  vital  and  all-important 
conclusion.  It  is  all-important,  not  as  demonstrating  beyond 
doubt  the  vital  and  fundamental  truth  of  distinct  species,  for 
that  is  a  self-evident  and  indeed  unavoidable  truth  that  meets 
us  at  every  step,  and  confronts  our  senses  almost  every  hour 
or  day  of  our  lives.  But  mulattoism  is  a  subject  of  stupend- 
ous importance  in  itself,  and  as  the  public  are  generally,  and 
the  "  anti-slavery"  writers  especially,  profoundly  ignorant  of 
it,  and  of  all  the  laws  that  govern  it,  it  is  proposed  to  present 
the  elementary  principles  or  basis  on  which  the  whole  subject 
rests.* 

1st.  In  the  case  of  the  white  man  cohabiting  with  the  negress, 
or  "  married"  to  a  negro  female,  there  will  be  a  more  limited 
progeny  than  if  she  were  married  to  one  of  her  own  race. 

*  The  author  has  devoted  much  time  and  labor  to  this  interesting  subject, 
and,  together  with  his  own  and  the  observations  of  friends  and  correspond- 
ents, covering  several  thousand  cases  of  the  mixed  blood,  is  able  to  deduce 
the  general  laws  as  stated  in  the  text,  and  with  entire  confidence  in  their 
essential  accuracy. 


MULATTOISM     AND    MONGRELISM.  14? 

2d.  The  mulatto  offspring  of  this  connection  intermarrying 
with  other  hybrids,  will  exhibit  still  less  virility. 

3d.  The  offspring  of  the  former  again  intermarrying  with 
hybrids  equally  removed  from  the  original  parentage,  shows  a 
yet  greater  diminution  of  virile  power. 

4th.  By  still  intermarrying  with  hybrids,  and  of  a  corre- 
sponding remove,  virility  is  correspondingly  decreased. 

5th.  Finally,  the  fourth  generation  of  mulattoism  is  as  abso- 
lutely sterile  as  muleism,  and  though  there  may  be,  at  rare  inter 
vals,  a  possible  exception,  yet,  in  every  practical  sense,  and  for 
all  the  purposes  of  philosophic  inquiry,  it  maybe  assumed  as  the 
natural  and  impassable  barrier  of  this  abnormal  and  exceptional 
form  of  being.  Of  the  essential  correctness  of  these  laws,  or 
their  data,  almost  every  one  living  in  the  South,  or  perhaps  in 
the  larger  cities  of  the  Middle  States,  will  be  able  to  satisfy 
himself,  if  he  will  take  the  trouble  to  investigate  the  matter. 
He  need  not  pursue  the  subject  to  its  ultimate  end,  or  to  an 
extent  necessary  to  arrive  at  all  the  results  here  presented,  but 
he  may,  with  comparatively  trifling  attention  to  it,  satisfy 
himself  of  the  tendencies  involved,  and  that  there  is  somewhere 
at  least  approximating  to  these  laws  a  fixed  and  absolute  bar- 
rier beyond  which  mxdattoism  can  not  exist.  All  the  dealers 
in  "  slaves"  and  many  "  slave  owners"  know  this  from  obser- 
vation and  individual  experience,  and  while  entirely  ignorant 
of  any  thing  like  the  scientific  formulae  here  presented,  not  a 
few  among  the  former  have  actually  stated  it  to  the  author  in 
total  unconsciousness  that  either  he  or  any  one  else  had  ever 
thus  formalized  the  essential  character  of  midattoism.  But 
there  is  a  very  important  feature  of  this  matter,  which,  not 
understood  or  overlooked,  may  lead  astray  those  who  under- 
take its  investigation.  As  has  been  said,  hybridity  is  a  pheno- 
menon to  be  tested  and  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  beings 
involved,  and  as  it  must  be  wholly  different  in  the  human 


148  MtJLATTOISM     AND     MONGEELISM. 

creatures  from  that  manifested  in  animals,  and  life  is  limited 
to  four  generations  in  the  case  of  mulattoes,  while  the  mule  is 
confined  to  a  single  generation,  so,  too,  must  the  mere  quality  or 
capacity  of  offspring  he  taken  into  consideration.  The  mule  is 
remarkable  for  its  powers  of  endurance — the  mulatto  for  its 
fragility  and  incapacity  to  endure  hardships.  A  northern 
climate  is  fatal  to  the  negro,  but  the  same  climate  is  still  more 
fatal  to  the  hybrid,  for  his  approximation  to  the  Caucasian, 
and  therefore  capacity  for  a  northern  clime,  is  more  than 
balanced  by  his  constitutional  tendencies  to  fragility  and  decay. 
Thus,  of  the  ten  thousand  free  negroes  in  Massachusetts, 
whom,  "  freedom"  and  climate  together,  were  there  no  more 
external  additions,  must  finally  exterminate,  the  last  man 
among  them  would  be  a  typical  negro,  or,  at  all  events, 
approximating  nearest  to  the  typical  standard. 

But  it  is  in  the  female  hybrid  that  this  tendency  to  decay, 
or  this  vice  of  constitutional  formation,  is  most  apparent. 
Many  of  them  are  incapable  of  nourishing  or  taking  care  of 
their  offspring,  and,  together  with  miscarriages  and  the  numer- 
ous  forms  of  disease  connected  with  maternity,  they  are  often 
found  to  have  had  a  large  number  of  children,  not  one  of  whom 
reached  maturity.  In  taking  into  view,  therefore,  the  sterility 
of  mulattoism,  we  must  have  regard  to  its  vices  of  formation 
as  well  as  its  limited  virility,  and  that  nature  completes  her 
processes,  whether  of  growth  or  decay,  through  many  dif- 
ferent forms  ;  and  while  mulattoism  is  as  absolutely  confined 
to  four  generations  as  mules  are  to  a  single  generation,  the 
former  result  is  worked  out  through  constitutional  fragility 
and  limited  longcvhy  as  much,  perhaps,  as  by  an  imperfect 
reproductive  capacity. 

It  is  seen,  therefore,  that  Prichard  and  the  European  ethno- 
logists made  a  radical  mistake  in  this  matter,  and  the  very 
proofs  which  they  relied  on  to  establish  their  single-race  theory, 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM.  149 

or  that  whites  and  negroes  were  of  the  same  species,  actually 
prove  the  precisely  opposite  fact,  that  they  are  of  different 
species.  Not  only  is  the  phenomenon  of  hybridity  different  in 
human  beings,  from  that  peculiar  to  animals,  but  it  differs  in 
the  different  races  of  the  former.  The  author's  inquiries  on 
this  subject  have  been  limited  to  the  white  and  negro  races  or 
species,  but  the  evidence  presented  to  his  observation,  during 
the  war  with  Mexico,  was  sufficiently  authentic  to  warrant  the 
conclusion  that  hybrids  have  greater  tenacity  of  life,  when  the 
offspring  of  whites  and  aborigines,  than  in  the  case  of  whites 
and  negroes.  The  former  approximate  closer  to  our  own  race, 
and  it  is  only  reasonable  to  suppose  that,  hi  precise  proportion 
to  this  fact,  or  to  this  starting  point,  is  the  hybrid  offspring 
endowed  with  vitality  ;  and  the  same  rule  may  be  applied  with 
equal  certainty  to  all  the  other  species  of  men. 

The  sexual  instinct,  or  the  instinct  of  reproduction,  is  uni- 
versal in  animal  existence.  It  is  that  which  multiplies  its  kind, 
that  peoples  the  earth  and  fills  the  world  with  innumerable 
tribes  of  beings  and  endless  processions  of  generations,  each 
after  its  kind  exhibiting  the  same  qualities  and  subject  to  the 
same  laws  as  the  original  types,  without  the  slightest  atom  of 
change,  though  countless  generations  intervene  between  them. 
In  respect  to  human  beings  endowed  with  reason  and  moral 
feeling,  it  is  evidently  designed  by  the  Almighty  Creator  of 
all  that  the  instinct  of  reproduction  shoidd  be  held  in  subjec- 
tion to  those  higher  qualities.  Nevertheless,  instinct  in  re- 
spect to  the  sexual  functions  is  strikingly  manifest  in  the 
lower  races  of  mankind. 

When  white  men — travelers  and  explorers — suddenly  make 
their  appearance  in  African  villages,  where  they  were  never 
before  seen,  the  females  run  and  hide  themselves  from  their 
sight ;  and  among  the  multitude  of  white  prisoners  captured 
by  the  aborigines  of  this  continent,  there  has  probably  nevei 


150  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGREL1SM. 

been  an  instance  of  the  violation  of  their  persons  by  their 
savage  captors.  In  respect  to  the  so-called  insurrection  of 
negroes  in  Hayti  or  San  Domingo,  where,  though  all  of  the 
white  blood,  men,  women,  and  children  in  their  nurses'  a-ms 
were  remorselessly  butchered  by  the  terror-stricken  blacks, 
there  are  no  authenticated  instances  of  the  violation  of  white 
females. 

A  negro  insurrection — that  is,  a  revolt  of  the  negro  from 
the  rule  of  the  white  man,  to  obtain  the  liberty  of  the  latter — 
is  simply  nonsensical :  as  entirely  so  as  to  suppose  an  insur- 
rection to  obtain  the  complexion  or  any  other  physical  attri- 
bute of  the  superior  race ;  but  should  some  white  miscreant, 
as  attempted  lately  at  Harper's  Ferry,  delude  "  slaves"  to 
slaughter  the  families  of  their  masters,  there  need  be  little  or 
no  apprehension  in  respect  to  that  hideous  and  monstrous  idea 
so  prominent  in  abolition  writings — the  violation  of  the  per- 
sons of  white  females.  It  is  true,  hybrids  and  mongrels  might 
perpetrate  such  monstrous  crimes,  but  the  negro — the  typical, 
pure-blooded  negro — driven  on  by  his  fears  and  dread  of  the 
master  race,  would  only  seek  its  extermination,  never  the 
indulgence  to  him  of  such  unnatural  propensities. 

The  instinct  of  reproduction  in  animals  is  governed  by  fixed 
laws ;  but,  as  has  been  said,  designed  by  the  common  Creator 
to  be  ruled  by  the  reason  and  subjected  to  the  moral  affections 
in  the  higher  human  nature ;  nevertheless,  the  ignorance  and 
corruption  of  our  social  life  have  perverted  these  designs,  and 
covered  society  with  blotches  and  ulcers  horribk  to  contem- 
plate. In  this  city  alone  there  are  said  to  be  ten  thousand  pros- 
titutes— lost  creatures,  so  lost  that  nature  denies  them  offspring, 
to  reproduce  themselves,  to  form  a  link  or  have  a  place  in  the 
mighty  processions  of  their  kind,  that  stand  out  distinct  and 
accursed,  dead  though  alive.  And  yet  each  of  these  blasted 
ones  was  created  with  capacities  of  iove,  of  affection,  of  receiv- 


MTTLATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM.  15J 

ing  and  conferring  happiness  boundless  and  me  isureless.  God 
made  them  pure  and  beautiful,  and  man  has  transformed  them 
into  beings  so  vile,  that  their  very  existence  must  not  be  recog- 
nized by  the  pure  and  virtuous!  God  created  them  but  a 
little  lower  than  the  angels — man  has  perverted  them  into 
something  scarcely  better  than  devils ! 

What  an  awful  perversion  of  the  instincts  of  reproduction — ■ 
of  that  great  vital  and  fundamental  law  which  animals  obey 
without  any  violation  of  it,  but  which  we,  in  our  lofty  nature 
and  God-given  powers,  have  thus  transformed  into  such  hideous 
shapes  and  worked  into  such  sickening  and  diseased  results ! 
The  sexes  are  equal  in  numbers,  and  therefore  nature  designs 
that  all  men  should  marry — that  one  man  should  be  united  to 
Dne  woman — that  they  should  always  be  attracted  to  each 
other  by  the  atfections,  and,  in  their  love  and  companionship, 
their  care  for  their  offspring,  for  their  home  and  its  sweet 
enjoyments,  it  offers  them  rewards  the  purest,  the  most  ex- 
alted, as  well  as  the  most  rational, that  our  being  is  capable  of 
feeling.  And  yet  the  sad  spectacle  is  presented  every  day  and 
all  about  us,  that  that  which  God  designed  should  be  the  source 
of  our  greatest  happiness  is  perverted  into  the  most  loathsome 
and  most  hideous  of  social  miseries !  What  may  be  the  causes 
or  the  principal  causes  (for  there  are  doubtless  many)  of  this 
hideous  ulcer  at  the  very  heart  of  modern  society,  it  is  need- 
less to  inquire — the  actual  or  proximate  cause  is  the  perversion 
of  the  sexual  laws — the  violation  of  the  instincts  of  reproduc- 
tion wholly  unknown  among  animals  and  comparatively  un- 
known among  the  subordinate  races  of  mankind.  It  is  the 
proud  Caucasian — the  large-brained  and  gloriously  endowed 
Caucasian — who  mostly  exhibits  this  terrible  crime  against  the 
higher  law,  and  who  thus  awfully  sins  against  God  and  his 
own  nature.  Such  a  thing  as  prostitution  is  unknown  among 
negroes — among  the  aborigines  of  this  continent,  and  scarcely 


152  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGREIISM. 

perceptible  among  Mongols  or  Chinese.  There  are,  it  is  true, 
great  vices,  shocking  indecencies  and  beastly  practices  among 
the  Mongols  and  other  subordinate  races,  but  prostitution — the 
indiscriminate  sale  of  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  desecration  of 
the  souls  of  women  for  money,  as  practiced  openly  in  all  the 
great  centres  of  Christendom,  is  peculiar  to  the  Caucasian 
alone — to  that  exalted  and  highly  endowed  race  which  God 
has  so  gifted  and  placed  at  the  head  of  all  other  races  of  man- 
kind. 

Mulattoism  is  to  the  South  what  prostitution  is  to  the  North 
— that  is,  those  depraved  persons  who  give  themselves  up  to  a 
wicked  perversion  of  the  sexual  instincts,  resort  to  the  mongrel 
or  "  colored  women"  instead  of  houses  of  ilLfame,  as  in  the 
former  case.  Such  a  thing  as  love,  or  natural  affection,  never 
has  nor  can  attract  persons  of  different  races,  and  therefore  all 
the  cohabitations  of  white  men  and  negro  women  are  abnor- 
mal— a  perversion  of  the  instincts  of  reproduction.  This 
"  original  sin,"  as  it  may  well  be  termed,  carries  with  it,  by  in- 
evitable necesssity,  certain  consequences,  and  the  declaration  of 
Holy  Writ,  that  the  children  are  punished  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  for  the  sins  of  their  fathers,  is  literally  true  in 
a  physiological  sense.  The  precise  laws  governing  the  genera- 
tion of  mulattoism  have  been  already  stated,  and  need  not  be 
repeated  in  this  place,  but  it  may  be  well  to  remember  that  the 
offspring  constantly  diminishes  when  hybrids  intermarry  with 
hybrids  of  the  same  remove,  until,  reaching  the  fourth  genera- 
tion, it  loses  all  generative  capacity  as  absolutely  as  the  mule. 
"With  this  radical  and  fundamental  vice  of  organization,  it  will 
be  readily  seen  that  mongrelism  can  never  become  an  important 
or  dangerous  element  of  population.  Mr.  Clay  once  advanced 
the  opinion  that  the  mixed  blood  of  the  South  was  rapidly  in- 
creasing, and  therefore  a  time  would  probably  come  when  the 
negro  blood  would  be  absorbed  by  the  whites,  and  the  negro 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM.  153 

life  be  utterly  extinct.  Theigno  ant  abolition  writers  have  made 
much  of  this  opinion  of  Mr.  Clay,  but  whatever  the  general 
intellectual  superiority  of  that  distinguished  gentleman,  any 
common  sense  person  must  know  that  his  ignorance  of  the 
laws  of  organization  renders  his  opinion  on  this  subject  of  no 
value  whatever.  Two  hundred  or  one  hundred  years  ago,  the 
proportion  of  the  sexes  among  the  white  people  was  doubtless 
less  equal  than  now,  and  therefore  those  abnormal  cohabita- 
tions of  white  men  with  negro  women  were  more  frequent 
than  at  present.  But  after  a  certain  amount  or  number  of  the 
mixed  blood  these  cohabitations  would  take  that  direction, 
and,  as  at  present,  would  be  mainfy  confined  to  the  hybrid  and 
"  colored"  women.  And  in  view  of  the  fragility,  sterility,  and 
almost  universal  tendency  to  disease  and  disorganization  in 
this  mixed  and  mongrel  element,  it  is  seen  at  a  glance  how 
impossible  it  is  that  it  should  ever  be  of  sufficient  amount  to 
threaten  the  safety  or  even  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Southern 
society.  In  proportion  to  the  normal  population  or  to  the 
pure  blood,  it  is  doubtless  less  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago,  and 
it  may  even  become  less  in  the  future,  but  it  is  wholly  and  abso- 
lutely impossible  that  it  can  ever  exist  in  larger  proportion  than 
at  present. 

This  vicious  intercourse  with  the  mongrel  women  at  the 
South,  of  course,  has  no  resemblance  or  relation  to  amalgama- 
tion ;  but  it  is  ignorantly  or  wilfully  thus  confounded  by  the 
abolition  writers  of  the  clay.  Amalgamation  is  reciprocal 
union  of  the  sexes,  such  as  that  between  the  Normans  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons  in  England — that  occurs  constantly  between 
the  natives  of  this  country  and  those  who  have  migrated  here 
from  Europe,  and  indeed  as  occurred  in  Mexico  and  other 
Spanish  provinces,  where  the  Spanish  conquerors,  who  brought 
few  Spanish  females  with  them,  sought  wives  among  the 
natives  or  Indian  races.     The  white  blood  of  the  South,  like 

7* 


154  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGKELISM. 

that  of  the  North,  is  pure  and  untainted,  and  a  white  -woman 
so  lost  and  degraded  as  to  mate  with  a  negro,  would  not  he 
permitted  to  even  live  among  negroes  in  a  Southern  commu- 
nity. Occasionally  a  monstrous  indecency  of  this  kind  does 
occur  at  the  North,  but  they  are  usually  English  or  other 
foreign-born  persons,  and  unless  there  was  some  moral  or 
physical  cause — some  disease  of  body  or  mind  which  rendered 
her  incapable  of  self-guidance,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that 
an  American-born  woman  ever  committed  such  an  indecent 
outrage  upon  her  own  womanhood, and  sin  against  God,  as  to 
mate  with  a  negro.  At  the  South,  as  has  been  said,  such  a  thing 
is  altogether  impossible,  for  the  woman  would  not  alone  be 
driven  from  the  society  of  her  own  race,  as  at  the  North,  but 
she  would  not  be  permitted  (if  known)  to  live  even  among  ne- 
groes !  Amalgamation  can  never  occur  at  the  South,  and 
scarcely  needs  an  exposition  in  this  place  ;  but  as  it  is  now  ac- 
tually taking  place  in  Jamaica  and  other  islands,  and,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  in  Cuba,  and,  moreover,  such  a  monstrous  social 
cataclysm  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  theory  or  idea  of  the 
abolition  of  "  slavery,"  it  is  well  enough,  perhaps,  to  give  it  an 
explanation. 

There  are  about  four  millions  of  negroes  in  this  country,  and 
if,  for  the  purposes  of  illustration,  we  may  suppose  the  theory 
of  anti-slaveryism  to  be  finally  reduced  to  practice,  the  follow- 
ing results  must  or  would  occur: — Four  millions  of  whites 
would  form  marital  unions  with  these  negroes — the  men  tak- 
ing negresses  to  wife,  and  the  females  negroes  for  husbands, 
ending  with  the  next  generation,  of  course,  in  mulattoes  and 
the  extinction  of  negroes.  The  third  generation  would  absorb 
the  mulattoes  and  end  in  quadroons;  the  fourth  generation 
would  manifest  a  corresponding  diminution,  and  a  time  come 
when  every  atom  of  negro  blood  would  disappear  as  utterly  as 
if  there  had  never  been  a  negro  on  this  continent.     The  popm 


MULATTOISM  AND  MONGEELISM.       15;j 

lar  notion  would  be,  perhaps,  like  that  of  Mr.  Clay,  that 
amalgamation  of  the  races  would  absorb  the  negro  blood,  it 
being  the  smaller  element,  and  this  would  remain  forever  float- 
ing in  the  veins  of  posterity.  But  this  could  not  be:  it  would 
die  out,  and  in  time  become  totally  extinct. 

If,  for  example,  one  hundred  of  the  leading  and  influential 
Abolitionists  of  the  day  should  practically  live  out  their  own 
doctrines — should  be  placed  on  some  island  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  each  with  a  negress  as  wife,  and  utterly  excluded  from 
intercourse  of  any  kind  with  the  rest  of  mankind,  they  and 
their  posterity  would,  after  a  certain  time,  utterly  perish  from 
existence.  In  the  second  generation  whites  and  negroes  alike 
would  be  extinct — that  which  the  hand  of  the  Eternal  had 
fashioned,  fixed,  and  designed  for  His  glory  and  the  happiness 
of  His  creatures  would  be  blotched,  deformed,  and  transformed 
by  their  own  wickedness  into  mulattoes,  and  could  no  more 
exist  beyond  a  given  period  than  any  other  physical  degenera- 
tion, no  more  than  tumors,  cancers,  or  other  abnormal  growths 
or  physical  disease  can  become  permanent  conditions.  The 
fourth  generation,  as  stated  elsewhere,  with  diminished  and 
diminishing  vitality,  would  impart  such  feeble  glimmerings  of 
life,  that  their  immediate  progeny  would  be  as  absolutely 
limited  in  their  powers  of  virility  as  mules,  and  the  whole  mass 
of  disease  and  corruption  would  disappear  from  the  earth, 
which  God  has  forbidden  it  to  desecrate  any  longer  by  its 
foul  and  disgusting  presence.*     But  contemplating  the  subjec 

c  Royalism,  or  a  Hereditary  Aristocracy,  or  ciass  that  attempts  to  create  a 
permanent  superiority  over  the  great  body  of  the  people  by  incestuous  inter- 
marriage with  its  own  members,  is  punished  with  similar  results  as  those 
that  attend  the  violation  of  the  sexual  relations  of  different  Races.  And  the 
idiotic,  impotent,  and  diseased  offspring  of  hereditary  tings  has  always 
a  certain  physiological  resemblance  to  the  effete  and  sterile  mulatto.  Both 
are  violations  of  the  normal  order,  and  both  are  limited  to  a  determir.ate  ex- 
istenco,  just  as  any  other  diseased  conditions  which  nature  forbids  to  live. 


156  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM. 

in  mass,  or  practical  abolitionism,  as  it  would  work  itself  out 
among  the  millions,  if  we  are  permitted,  for  the  purposes  of 
illustration,  to  suppose  such  a  monstrous  and  stupendous 
crime  against  God  and  our  own  being  as  the  actual  and  prac- 
tical development  of  the  theory,  widely  different  results 
would  naturally  follow.  As  has  been  said,  four  millions  of 
our  own  white  race  would  be  involved  in  this  monstrous 
maelstrom  of  amalgamation  with  the  subject  race,  while  the 
remaining  twenty  millions  would  be  left  untouched  and  unpol- 
luted by  the  physical  degradation  that  must  needs  follow  such 
a  stupendous  sin  as  practical  abolitionism.  But  they  would 
not  escape  the  moral  deterioration,  and  the  nation,  weighed 
down  by  mulattoism,  by  such  an  ulcer  on  the  body  politic,  by 
such  a  frightful  mass  of  disease  and  death,  would  doubtless  fall 
a  conquest  to  some  other  nation  or  variety  of  the  master  race, 
and  again  become  English  provinces  or  dependencies  of  some 
other  European  power ! 

Nations  are  punished  in  this  life,  however  it  may  be  with  in- 
dividuals, and  a  sin  so  enormous,  a  crime  and  impiety  against 
God  so  awful,  an  outrage  on  their  own  nature  so  boundless 
and  bottomless  as  practical  abolitionism,  or  the  actual  living 
out  of  the  abolition  theory,  would  drag  after  it,  as  an  inex- 
orable necessity,  a  corresponding  punishment. 

History  is  pregnant  with  examples  of  this  inevitable  law. 
Nations  after  nations  have  risen,  flourished,  decayed,  and  died  on 
the  African  continent ;  millions  upon  millions  of  white  Chris- 
tian men  have  existed  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  alone ;  three 
hundred  Christian  bishops  have  met  in  convention  on  the  site 
of  ancient  Carthage,  when  London  was  unknown  and  Rome 
itself  the  seat  of  the  heathen  Caesars ;  and  now,  of  the  five 
hundred  millions  of  Caucasians  known  to  have  existed  on  that 
continent  since  the  Christian  era  began,  there  are  probably 
not  one  million  of  typical  white  men  left  to  tell  the  tale  of  theii 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGREL  ISM.  157 

destruction,  or  to  mourn  over  the  desolation  brought  upon 
them  by  the  crimes  and  sins  of  their  progenitors.  The  vastly 
preponderating  white  element  would  doubtless  save  us  from 
similar  consequences,  should  we  ever  commit  such  a  hideous 
crime  as  that  involved  in  the  practical  application  of  the  aboli- 
tion theory ;  but,  as  has  been  said,  we  would  most  likely  fall 
a  conquest  to  some  European  power.  But  should  this  fate 
not  overtake  us,  should  we  be  left  to  struggle  with  the  load 
of  sin  and  disease  thus  brought  upon  ourselves  by  our  crimes 
against  reason  and  the  ordinances  of  the  Eternal,  the  nation 
would  in  time  slough  off  mulattoism,  and  finally  recover  from 
the  foul  and  horrible  contamination  of  admixture  with  the 
blood  of  the  negro.  The  twenty  millions  of  pure  and  untainted 
blood  woidd  increase  so  rapidly  over  the  diseased  portion,  that 
finally  every  trace,  atom,  and  drop  or  globule  of  the  latter 
would  be  utterly  extiuct,  and  though  the  time  for  this  process 
to  work  itself  out,  or  for  the  white  race  to  recover  its  healthy 
and  natural  condition,  cannot  be  estimated  with  any  certainty, 
such  would  needs  be  the  final  result.  This  same  process, 
though  the  parties  are  directly  reversed,  is  now  in  active  oper- 
ation in  Mexico,  and  all  the  Spanish-American  States.  The 
Spanish  conquerors  brought  few  countrywomen  with  them, 
and  therefore  sought  wives  among  the  natives  or  aboriginal 
race,  and  amalgamation  became  universal  in  all  the  Spanish 
provinces,  the  result  of  which  has  been  the  generation  of  a 
vast  and  wide-spread  mongrelism.  The  Spanish  dominion 
usually  embodied  in  the  pure  blood,  not  from  any  prejudice 
against  the  mixed  element,  but  from  jealousy  of  the  native 
born,  preserved  order  and  general  prosperity.  But  the  over- 
throw of  this  dominion  brought  the  mongrel  element  into 
power,  for  though  Iturbide,  Santa  Anna,  Bravo,  Bustamente, 
Parades,  all  or  nearly  all  the  chiefs  of  Independence  were 
of  pure  Castilian  blood,  it  was  the  mongrel  element  that  over- 


158  MTJLATT01SH     AND     MONGRELISM. 

threw  the  Spanish  power  and  established  the  republic.  Span- 
iards were  constantly  migrating  to  the  American  possessions 
of  the  Spanish  crown,  but,  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish 
dominion,  this  supply  of  white  blood  was  cut  off,  and  instead 
of  the  generation  of  mongrelism,  from  that  instant  the  repara- 
tory  process  began,  which  can  only  end  in  sloughing  off  the 
mixed  blood,  and  the  restoration  of  the  aboriginal  race  to  its 
natural  and  healthy  condition,  as  it  was  before  the  Spanish 
conquest  and  the  admixture  of  the  white  element.  This 
mixed  or  mongrel  element  is  found  in  the  cities,  but  it  is  rap- 
idly declining.  Mexico  had,  at  the  era  of  Independence,  two 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  It  has  now  little  over  one 
hundred  thousand  people.  Puebla,  Perote,  Jalapa,  all  the 
cities  of  Mexico  decline  in  similar  proportion,  while  the  rural 
population — the  pure,  untainted,  aboriginal  element — though 
placed  under  great  and  striking  disadvantages,  holds  its  own, 
and  were  it  guided  and  cared  for,  as  it  was  one  hundred  years 
ago,  would  doubtless  rapidly  increase  in  number.  Nor  is  it 
alone  the  fragility,  feebleness,  the  vicious  organization  and  im- 
perfect vitality  of  mulattoism,  or  of  the  mongrel  element,  that 
is  thus  rapidly  diminishing  the  population  in  Mexican  cities. 
The  morale  of  mongrelism  partakes  of  the  physical  deformity, 
and  the  vices  of  the  mind  are  as  striking  and  constant  as  the 
defects  of  the  body.  A  creature  with  half  the  nature  and 
wants  of  the  white  man  united  in  the  same  existence  with 
those  of  the  Indian,  is  confronted  with  another,  perhaps  three- 
fourths  white,  while  on  the  other  side  of  him  is  one  who  has 
three-fourths  Indian  blood,  and  a  population  made  up  of  such 
materials  is  necessarily  and  perpetually  at  war  with  itself. 
Hence  in  all  the  revolutions  of  Mexico  there  is  no  design,  no 
common  object  that  unite  men  in  common  purposes,  no  sense, 
reason,  or  common  impulse  whatever,  except  to  destroy,  to 
overturn,  to  seize  power  to-day  without  any  purpose  for  to« 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONQKELISM.  159 

morrow.  And  this  goes  on,  and  must  go  on  until  nature  re- 
pairs the  outrages  inflicted  on  her,  until  mongrelism  dies  out 
and  the  aboriginal  or  Indian  element  is  restored  to  its  pristine 
condition,  until  every  atom  of  the  white  blood  is  extinct  and 
the  Indian  race  is  again  what  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
conquest. 

The  subject  opens  up  questions  of  mighty  import  to  us, 
arid  possibly,  as  Mr.  Calhoun  believed,  great  dangers  to  our 
people  and  the  future  of  civilization ;  but  if  understood — if 
American  legislators  and  statesmen  comprehend  the  real  char- 
acter of  these  vast  populations  south  of  us,  known  as  the 
Spanish-American  republics,  and  apply  to  them  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  social  and  political  economy,  when  the  time  comes  to 
deal  with  them,  there  need  be  little  or  no  apprehension  in  re- 
gard to  the  results.  Meanwhile,  the  solution  of  these  problems 
is  every  day  becoming  simpler  and  more  easily  understood. 
The  mixed  blood  is  rapidly  dying  out ;  a  time  must  come  when 
it  will  be  wholly  extinct,  and  then  the  white  American  will 
stand  face  to  face  with  the  native,  a  race  which,  whatever  may 
be  our  experience  of  it  in  the  North,  is  easily  governed,  and  as 
has  been  said,  if  understood,  there  need  be  little  or  no  appre- 
hension of  danger  or  difficulty  in  regard  to  it. 

The  same  process  is  going  on  in  Jamaica  and  other  islands, 
though  here  it  is  the  negro  instead  of  the  Indian  that  is  in 
issue.  An  idea  or  assumption  was  set  up  in  England  that  the 
negroes  of  these  islands  were  black  white  men — men  like  them- 
selves, except  in  color — and  therefore  naturally  entitled  to  the 
same  rights;  and  a  party  sprung  up  that  at  last  induced  the 
British  Parliament  to  "  abolish"  the  existing  relations  of  the 
whites  and  negroes,  and  to  place  them  on  the  same  political 
and  legal  level.  The  white  people  protested  against  this 
wrong  and  outrage  on  reason  and  common  sense,  but  it  -was 
of  no  avail.    Their  cry  for  mercy  was  unheard-  -at  all  events, 


160  MFLATTOISM     AND     MOXGRELI8M. 

disregarded — and  the  helpless  and  outraged  whites  are  nc  w  m 
process  of  utter  extinction  by  amalgamation. 

The  same  political  and  legal  status  leads,  of  course,  to  the 
same  social  level,  and  it,  in  turn,  to  the  general  admixture  of 
blood.  A  white  woman  is  not  likely,  even  under  these  un- 
natural crrcunistances,  to  desecrate  her  womanhood  by  mating 
with  a  negro,  though  public  sentiment  forces  her  to  associate 
with  them.  But  this  woman  marries  a  man  with  one-eighth 
or  one-fourth  of  negro  blood,  without  hesitation,  and  the 
woman  of  this  shade  readily  mates  with  a  mulatto,  and  the 
latter  with  the  "typical  negro.  Thus,  while  natural  instinct 
shrinks  from  such  a  crime  against  nature  and  such  an  impiety 
toward  God  as  the  marriage  or  mating  of  the  pure  types, 
the  outward  force  of  legal  and  political  systems  impels  all 
shades  of  mongrelism  in  the  direction  of  the  preponderating 
element ;  and  a  time  must  come  when  the  white  blood,  becom- 
ing extinct,  the  negro  will  relapse,  of  course,  into  his  native 
Africanism. 

The  outward  jn-esence  of  a  foreign  government  impels  the 
unhappy  white  people  of  these  fertile  and  beautiful  islands  into 
this  monstrous  violation  of  the  laws  of  organization,  and  cer- 
tain ultimate  social  destruction ;  but  the  power  of  the  govern- 
ment also  restrains  the  negro  element  from  a  rapid  collapse 
into  its  native  Africanism.  In  Hayti,  where  all  external  or 
governmental  influence  is  withdrawn,  the  negro  nature  already 
strongly  manifests  its  normal  savagery,  when  no  longer  re- 
strained by  the  master  race,  and  the  worship  of  Obi  or  Feticism, 
and  even  the  native  African  dialect,  is  becoming  common  to 
many  districts  in  that  island.  In  general  terms,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  exact  moment  when  the  white  blood  becomes  extinct 
is  also  the  instant  when  Africanism  is  perfectly  restored,  but 
the  outward  presence  of  the  British  government  on  the  islands, 
and  of  the  Colonization  Society  in  Liberia,  will  prevent  tl^  com- 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM.  101 

plete  development  of  this  otherwise  natural  and  necessary  law. 
That  the  white  blood  of  Jamaica  must  be  absorbed,  or  rather 
must  die  out,  is  a  necessity,  an  effect,  a  fate  that  is  unavoid- 
able— the  final  end  being  alone  a  question  of  time.  A  foreign 
government,  as  has  been  said,  regardless  of  the  protests  and 
the  cry  for  mercy  of  its  unfortunate  people,  forcibly  changed 
their  relations  to  the  subordinate  race.  It  declared  the  negroes 
the  legal  and  political  equals  of  the  whites ;  this  necessarily  led 
to  social  equality — that,  in  its  turn,  to  the  marriage  of  whites 
and  quadroons — quadroons  with  mulattoes,  and  mulattoes  with 
negroes ;  thus  the  process,  beginning  with  the  act  of  the 
British  Parliament  abolishing  "  slavery,"  ends  naturally  and 
necessarily  in  the  social  immolation  and  final  extinction  of  the 
white  people  of  that  island. 

All  the  links  in  the  chain  are  continuous — all  the  series  of 
events  dependent  on  each  other — all  the  steps  of  the  process 
naturally  united ;  the  emancipation,  the  legal  equality,  the 
social  level,  the  admixture  of  blood,  and  the  ultimate  extinc- 
tion, are  part  and  parcel  of  the  same  awful  crime  against  nature 
and  against  God,  against  the  laws  of  organization  and  against 
the  decrees  of  the  Eternal.  The  end,  therefore,  of  these  things 
must  be  the  restoration  of  the  pure  Indian  type  on  the  main 
land  and  that  of  the  negro  in  the  islands ;  and,  as  has  been 
said,  though  the  thne  needed  for  the  completion  of  this  repara- 
tory  process — for  such  it  is,  physiologically  considered — may 
not  be  determined  with  certainty,  it  can  not  be  very  distant,  and 
were  white  men  to  stand  aloof  and  permit  the  process  to  work 
itself  out,  without  interference,  it  is  quite  probable  that  a  hun- 
dred, or,  at  most,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  hence,  there  would 
not  be  a  drop  of  white  blood  found  south  of  our  own  limits. 

Mulattoism  is  an  abnormalism — a  disease — a  result  that 
brings  suffering  unspeakable  as  well  as  extinction — that  is  un- 
avoidable ;  and,  in  view  of  this  fate  brought  upon  them  by  a 


162  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM. 

foreign  government,  who  can  doubt  but  that  the  total  slaugh« 
ter  of  the  white  people  of  Jamaica  would  have  been  merciful, 
in  comparison  to  that  forced  upon  them  by  the  abolition  of 
"  slavery,"  and  equality  with  negroes  ?  Or  will  any  one  sufi 
ficiently  informed  on  this  subject,  who  understands  the  physical 
and  moral  suffering  involved  or  inseparably  linked  with  the 
mixed  blood,  doubt  for  a  moment  that,  as  a  question  of 
humanity,  it  would  be  vastly  more  humane  to  slaughter  all  the 
negroes  in  our  midst,  rather  than  apply  to  them  the  abolition 
theory,  or  rather  than  doom  them  to  legal  equality,  to  amalga- 
mation, to  mulattoism,  mongrelism,  and  that  final  iinavoidable 
extinction  that  necessarily  attends  the  minor  element  under 
these  circumstances  ?  But  in  addition  to  the  physical  suffer- 
ing attending  the  process  of  extinction  in  Jamaica,  it  was,  or 
is,  or  must  be,  the  annihilation  of  Caucasian  intelligence,  of 
civilization,  of  all  that  God  has  bestowed  upon  His  creatines 
that  is  exalted  and  glorious,  and  therefore  the  crime  perpetrated, 
however  blindly  or  well-intentioned,  must  stand  out  in  future 
ages  the  most  awful  and  impious -ever  known  in  human  annals. 
Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  physiological  laws  governing 
mulattoism  and  mongrelism — that  abnormal  or  diseased  condi- 
tion which  results  from  admixture  of  the  blood  of  sepai*ate 
races  or  species  of  men.  Its  mental  and  moral  features  are 
equally  distinct  and  discordant,  though  less  susceptible  of  ex- 
planation or  of  being  classified,  as  in  the  case  of  the  merely 
physical  qualities.  As  a  general  principle  the  mongrel  has 
intellectual  ability  in  proportion  as  he  approximates  to  the  su- 
perior race.  This  is  a  necessary  truth ;  there  is  mental  capacity 
or  intelligence,  latent  or  actual,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  brain,  in  animals,  indeed,  as  well  as  human  beings,  as  cer- 
tainly and  invariably  as  there  is  muscular  power  in  proportion 
to  the  size  and  form  of  the  muscles ;  but  this  principle  is  hardly 
a  guide  or  test  in  respect  to  the  moral  qualities  of  the  mixed 


MULATTOISM     AND    MONGRELISM.  163 

blood.  There  is  scarcely  anything  or  any  phase  of  the  general 
subject  that  has  so  blinded  and  led  astray  "  anti-slavery"  writers 
as  this  subject  of  mulattoism;  for  they  were  not  only  ignorant 
of  it,  but  never  dreamed  for  a  moment  that  there  was  any  such 
thing  hi  existence,  and  constantly  assumed  in  their  reasonings 
(?)  that  the  mulatto  Avas  a  negro,  and  therefore  presented  him, 
and  even  the  quadroon,  as  an  evidence  of  the  mental  capacity 
of  that  race.  One  of  these  people  would  find  his  way  to  Eng- 
land or  the  North,  was  educated,  became  an  editor,  physician, 
priest,  sometimes  even  an  author,  on  a  small  scale  perhaps,  at 
all  events  a  public  lecturer,  to  whom  white  men  and  women 
listened  with  the  utmost  gravity,  and  perfectly  satisfied  them- 
selves of  the  mental  equality  of  the  races,  for  here  was  a  negro 
who  talked  the  same  language,  had  the  same  ideas,  and  was 
quite  as  eloquent  as  the  general  average  among  white  men. 
Even  the  Abbe"  Gregoire  labored  under  this  very  absurd  and 
very  general  misconception,  and  wrote  a  book  giving  the  biog- 
raphy of  fifteen  negroes  to  prove  the  mental  equality  of  the 
races,  not  one  of  whom  was  a  negro  at  all !  Some  mides  are 
doubtless  superior  to  some  horses,  but  no  mule  was  ever  equal 
to  the  average  horse ;  and  doubtless  some  mulattoes  have  been 
superior  to  some  white  men,  but  no  mulatto  ever  did  nor  ever 
can  reach  the  intellectual  standard  of  the  Caucasian.  What 
nonsense  it  would  be  to  point  out  a  favorite  mule  to  show  that 
asses  were  the  equals  of  horses  ;  yet  this  nonsense,  or  similar 
nonsense,  is  practised  every  day  by  those  who  rely  upon 
mongrels  and  hybrids  to  prove  the  mental  capacity  of  the 
negro !  Indeed,  quadroons,  and  even  mongrels,  with  only 
one-eighth  of  negro  blood,  like  Roberts,  the  President  of  Libe- 
ria, have  been  quoted  as  illustrations  of  negro  character  and 
accepted  as  perfectly  satisfactory  by  the  blind  followei'S  of 
the  equally  blind  teachers  of  Abolitionism.  The  fact  that 
such  a  thing  as  an  "  educated"  mulatto  exists  at  all  among  us 


164  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGRELISM. 

as  long  as  we  have  uneducated  white  men,  is  a  disgrace  to  tho 
nation,  to  our  institutions,  to  our  social  development ;  and  in 
England  it  serves  as  a  test  of  social  wrong  and  wickedness 
frightful  to  contemplate.  As  has  been  said,  no  mule  was  ever 
equal  to  the  average  horse,  so  no  mulatto  was  ever  created 
equal  to  the  standard  white  man ;  yet  in  England  there  are 
eight  millions  unable  to  read  or  write,  and  through  human  in- 
stitutions rendered  inferior  to  the  "  educated"  mulatto !  The 
moral  qualities  of  the  mixed  element  are  less  definite,  but  every- 
one's observations,  as  well  as  history  and  statistics,  tend  to  the 
same  general  conclusion — the  greater  viciousnese.  of  the  mu- 
latto when  compared  with  either  of  the  original  types  or  typi- 
cal races.  This  essential  truth,  common  to  all  exceptional  and 
abnormal  conditions,  is  universally  manifested  among  "  slaves" 
at  the  South,  "  free"  negroes  at  the  North,  mestizoes  in  Mexico, 
or  the  whilom  hybrids  of  Eayti.  The  mongrels  of  Mexico — 
the  so-called  Leperos — are  thieves,  ladrones,  robbers,  and  assas- 
sins, not  like  the  Italian  bravos  of  a  former  age,  who,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  redeemed  their  horrible  crimes  by  a  kind  of  chival- 
rous daring  which  gave  their  victims  some  chance  for  life,  but 
secret,  crouching,  and  cowardly  assassins,  who  never  attack 
where  there  is  the  slightest  danger  to  themselves.  They 
crouch,  concealed  in  the  shadow  of  a  wall  or  door-way,  en- 
veloped in  huge  cloaks,  with  the  exception  of  the  arm  that 
wields  the  keen,  narrow-bladed,  and  double-edged  knife,  which 
is  plunged  in  the  back  of  the  hapless  victim,  and  then  they 
invariably  run  away,  unless  supported  by  their  vile  compan- 
;ons.  In  the  field  they  never  face  white  men  except  when 
their  numbers  are  overwhelming,  and  they  give  no  quarter ; 
but  if  themselves  defeated,  their  cry  for  mercy  is  so  intolerable 
in  its  groveling  clamor,  that  the  victor  is  disposed  to  dispatch 
,  them  at  once  to  get  rid  of  it.  With  diminished  vitality,  and 
less  hold  on  existence  than  the  pure  blood,  the  mongrel,  whila 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGKELISM.  165 

utterly  reckless  of  life  in  respect  to  others,  clings  to  it  himself 
and  shrinks  from  death  with  an  abject  terror  rarely  or  never 
witnessed  in  the  original  races.  The  typical  negro,  for  exam- 
ple, though  brave  enough  when  led  by  his  master,  shrinks  iu 
terror  from  the  face  of  the  lordly  Caucasian  when  not  thus 
supported,  and  a  score  or  two  of  the  latter  in  the  open  field 
would  doubtless  drive  a  thousand  negroes  before  them  like 
sheep  to  the  slaughter.  But  a  negro  condemned  to  die,  to  be 
hanged,  to  be  burned  even,  rarely  manifests  dread  or  apprehen- 
sion of  any  kind.  His  imperfect  innervation,  his  sluggish 
brain,  and  low  grade  of  sensibility,  render  him  incapable  of 
anticipating  that  terrible  physical  suffering  from  which  the 
elaborate  and  exquisitely  organized  Caucasian  suffers  under 
these  circumstances.  So,  too,  the  Indian — "  the  stoic  of  the 
woods — the  man  without  a  tear,"  as  the  poet  Campbell,  and 
others  ignorant  of  his  nature,  have  represented  him — a  crea- 
ture, according  to  their  absurd  fancies,  fashioned  on  the  Ro- 
man model,  with  the  self-poised  and  philosophical  indifference 
to  outward  things  of  a  Seneca,  and  the  calm  contempt  of  phys- 
ical suffering  of  a  Cato,  but  who,  all  this  time,  in  his  grosser 
organization,  has  none  of  the  white  man's  perceptions  of  phj  s- 
ical  pain,  and  therefore  sings  his  death-song  in  total  unconscious- 
ness of  that  which  to  us  is  the  extreme,  or  supposed  extreme, 
of  physical  suffering. 

This  organic  insensibility  of  the  lower  races  to  physical  pain, 
which  renders  them  indifferent  to  the  approach  of  death,  is 
sometimes  equalled,  and  perhaps  surpassed,  as  regards  the  out- 
ward expression,  by  the  dominating  moral  forces  in  the  case 
of  the  higher  organized  Caucasian.  Lamartine  has  said  that 
the  mistress  of  Louis  XV.,  the  notorious  Duchess  Du  Barry, 
was  the  only  person  sent  to  the  guillotine  during  the  reign  of 
terror  that  asked  for  mercy,  or  shrank  with  terror  from  the 
approach  of  death.     Not  men  alone,  but  women,  even  del- 


166  MULATTOISM     AND     MONGEBLISM. 

icately  nurtured  young  girls,  who,  under  ordinary  circumstan- 
ces, would  faint  on  witnessing  the  death  of  a  sparrow,  ascended 
the  steps  of  the  guillotine  without  a  tear  or  the  quiver  of  a 
muscle.  They  died  for  an  idea,  and  a  false  one  at  that,  but 
they  believed  it  true  and  immutable  as  heaven  itself,  and  the 
exaltation  of  the  mind  over  the  body,  the  dominating  moral 
forces  over  the  laws  of  the  physical  being,  enabled  them  to  meet 
death  without  a  murmur,  and,  as  regards  the  outward  expres- 
sion, to  seem  as  indifferent  to  the  physical  pain  involved,  as  the 
Indian  or  the  negro,  whose  lower  organization  is  incapable  of 
such  suffering. 

But  the  mulatto  or  mongrel  has  neither  the  physical  insen- 
sibility of  the  inferior  nor  the  moral  force  of  the  superior  race, 
and  the  instinctive  consciousness  of  his  feeble  vitality  renders 
him  the  most  cowardly  of  human  beings.  The  generals  and 
leaders  of  the  mixed  blood  in  Spanish-America,  as  well  as  those 
of  Hayti,  have  been  as  much  distinguished  for  their  monstrous 
vices,  their  treachery,  cowardice,  sensuality,  and  ferocity,  as 
for  any  special  ability  they  may  have  displayed.  The  cruel 
and  despotic  government  of  Spain,  when  desirous  to  crush  the 
revolutionists,  invariably  trusted  the  bloody  work  to  mongrel 
chiefs,  who  just  as  invariably  exceeded  their  orders,  and 
when  directed  to  decimate  a  town  or  village,  often  massacred 
the  entire  population. 

The  mongrel  generals  of  Hayti  were  even  more  ferocious 
and  bloody,  if  not  surpassing  in  treachery  and  cowardice  the 
Indian  mongrels  of  the  Continent.  Rigaud,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  the  Haytien  chiefs,  was  also  the  most  repulsive 
in  his  enormous  and  beastly  vices.  Christophe  and  Dessa- 
lines  were  negroes,  and  they  simply  acted  out  the  negro  in- 
stinct under  those  unratural  circumstances.  They  remorse- 
lessly slaughtered  all  the  white  men,  women,  and  children 
of  the  island  that  they  could  find,  for  when  the  negro  rises 


MULATTOISM     AND     MONGEELISM.  167 

against  his  master,  it  is  not  to  conquer  but  to  exterminate  the 
dreaded  race  ;  and  the  helpless  infant  or  its  frightened  and  des- 
pairing mother  touches  no  chord  of  mercy  in  the  souls  of  these 
frantic  and  terror-stricken  wretches  when  forced  or  betrayed 
into  resistance  to  their  masters.  But  the  mongrel  leaders,  and 
especially  Rigaud,  were  mere  moral  monsters,  whose  deeds 
of  slaughter  were  alternated  with  scenes  of  beastly  debauchery 
and  unnatural  and  devilish  revelry,  such  as  could  neither  orig- 
inate in  the  simple  animalism  of  the  negro  nor  with  the  most 
sensual,  perverse,  and  fiendish  among  white  men. 

But  we  have  this  viciousness  of  the  mongrel  displayed  con- 
tinually before  us  at  the  North  as  Avell  as  at  the  South.  Nine- 
tenths  of  the  crime  committed  by  so-called  negroes  is  the  work 
of  the  mongrel — the  females  almost  all  being  as  lewd  and 
lascivious  as  the  males  are  idle,  sensual,  and  dishonest.  The 
Btrange  and  disgusting  delusion  that  has  fastened  itself  on  so 
many  minds  at  the  North  seeks  to  cast  an  air  of  romance  over 
these  mongrel  women — these  "girls  almost  white" — and  in 
negro  novels  and  on  the  stage  represent  them  as  "  victims  of 
caste,"  and  often  doomed  to  a  fate  worse  than  death  to  gratify 
the  "  vices  of  the  whites."  And  a  diseased  sentimentality,  as  in- 
decent as  it  is  nonsensical,  is  indulged  by  certain  "pious  ladies" 
in  respect  to  these  "interesting"  quadroons,  etc.,  who  are 
almost  always  essentially  vicious,  while  their  own  white  sisters 
falling  every  hour  from  the  ranks  of  pure  womanhood,  are  un- 
heeded, and  their  terrible  miseries  totally  disregarded. 

Finally,  it  scarcely  need  be  repeated  that  mongrelism  is  a 
diseased  condition — a  penalty  that  nature  imposes  for  the  vio- 
lation of  her  laws — a  punishment  that,  by  an  inexorable  neces- 
sity, is  inflicted  on  the  offspring  of  those  who,  in  total  disregard 
of  her  ordinances,  of  instinct,  of  natural  affection,  and  of  reason, 
form  sexual  interunions  with  persons  of  different  races,  but 
which,  like  all  other  abnormal  conditions,  is  confined  within 
fixed  limits  and  mercifully  doomed  to  final  extinction. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  "SLAVE  TRADE,"  OR  THE  IMPORTATION  OF  NEGROES 

Ik  the  preceding  chapters  of  this  work  it  has  been  shown 
that  the  human  family,  like  all  other  forms  of  being,  is  com- 
posed of  a  certain  number  of  species,  all  having  a  general 
resemblance,  but  each  specifically  different  from  the  other-  - 
that  the  Caucasian  .ind  Negro  are  placed  by  the  will  of  the  Al- 
mighty Creator  at  the  two  extremes  of  humanity — the  former 
being  the  most  superior  and  the  latter  the  most  inferior  of  all 
the  known  human  races ;  that  the  physical  structure  or  organi- 
zation is  always  and  necessarily  connected  with  corresponding 
faculties  or  functions,  and  therefore  the  more  prominent  physi- 
cal qualities  of  the  negro  have  been  presented,  in  order  to  illus- 
trate his  mental  and  moral  nature.  It  has  also  been  shown 
that  the  all-powerful  instinct  (prejudice)  which  revolts  at  the 
commingling  of  the  blood  of  different  races  (stronger  even  with 
the  negro  than  our  own  race)  springs  from  a  fundamental 
organic  necessity,  impelling  us  to  preserve  our  structural  in- 
tegrity, and  if  disregarded  and  violated,  it  carries  with  it  a 
corresponding  penalty,  and  the  miserable  progeny,  like  all 
other  abnormal  conditions,  is  limited  to  a  determinate  exist- 
ence ;  that  that  which  the  Eternal  hand  has  moulded  and  fash- 
ioned is  also  eternal,  and  beyond  the  power,  caprice,  ignorance, 
or  wickedness  of  His  creatures,  to  change  or  modify ;  and 
therefore  all  the  departures  from  the  typical  standard — all 
forms  and  degrees  of  the  mongrel  or  mixed  blood — are  doomed 
to  final  extinction.     Here  we  h°ve,  then,  four  millions  of  a 


OC  EAN  IC. 


% 


<P 


"the   slave  teade."  169 

widely  different  race  in  our  midst,  and  though  we  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  may  not  be  responsible  for  their  presence  among 
us,  and  are  only  called  upon  to  deal  with  the  fact  itself,  with- 
out regard  to  its  origin,  the  subject  is  of  profound  interest,  and 
however  current  or  unanimous  the  opinion  may  now  be  against 
the  original  "  slave  trade,"  it  is  believed  that  a  larger  knowl- 
edge and  a  more  extended  acquaintance  with  the  facts  em- 
braced in  that  subject  will  finally  result  in  a  total  change  of 
popular  (American)  opinion.  And  what  American  will  not 
rejoice  at  such  a  result,  if,  when  all  the  facts  are  known  and 
tested  by  reason  and  conscience  and  the  dictates  of  a  true 
humanity,  it  is  found  that,  however  censurable  the  means  em- 
ployed may  sometimes  have  been,  the  "  slave  trade,"  the  origi- 
nal importation  of  African  negroes  by  our  ancestors,  wras 
right  ?  The  negro,  as  has  been  shown,  from  the  necessities  of 
his  organism — the  size  and  form  of  his  brain — is,  perforce, 
when  isolated  and  by  himself,  a  savage — an  idle,  non-advanc- 
ing, and  non-producing  savage,  and  history,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, in  a  word,  all  human  experience,  confirms  this  physiological 
and  material  fact.  African  travelers,  finding  occasionally  the 
debris  of  Caucasian  populations  and  the  remains  of  Mahometan 
civilization,  have  told  fanciful  tales  about  negro  industry, 
thrift,  and  morality,  while  dreamers  at  home  have  indulged  in 
even  more  absurd  fancies  still  in  regard  to  the  future  of  Africa. 
But  why  go  to  Africa  to  theorize  about  the  negro,  when  we 
have  him  here,  and  subject  to  our  senses  as  weU  as  our  reason  ? 
Why  speculate  on  impossible  assumptions,  when  the  negro 
brain  may  be  seen  any  day  at  a  medical  college,  and  its 
incapacity — its  organic  and  inherent  incapacity — to  be  any 
thing  else,  or  to  ever  manifest  any  thing  else,  but  just  that 
which  all  human  experience  confirms  and  assures  us  must  be, 
as  it  always  has  been,  the  destiny  of  this  race,  when  left  to 
itself?   To  talk  of  the  civilization  of  the  negro  of  Africa  is  like 

8 


170  "the   slave   trade." 

talking  of  the  change  of  color  of  the  negro,  for  it  involves  the 
same  absurdities,  the  same  impossibilities  ;  and  were  not  those 
who  indulge  in  it  utterly  ignorant  of  the  subject,  one  might 
say  the  same  impieties,  for  the  assumption  that  they  can  change 
the  intellectual  nature  which  God  has  given  the  negro,  is  as 
grossly  impious  as  if  they  were  to  undertake  his  physical  re- 
creation. 

The  negro,  therefore,  isolated  in  Africa,  as  has  been  said, 
must  be  in  the  future  what  he  has  been  in  the  past,  and  with- 
out a  supernatural  interposition,  must  remain  forever  a  simple, 
non-producing,  and  non- advancing  savage.  Can  this  have  been 
the  design  of  the  Almighty  ?  There  are  some  things  we  are 
not  permitted  to  know,  that  it  is  impious  as  well  as  foolish  to 
seek  to  know,  that  the  Almighty,  in  His  infinite  beneficence  as 
well  as  wisdom  forbids  us  to  inquire  into,  or  rather  to  attempt 
to  inquire  into ;  but  in  all  that  is  necessary  to  our  happiness  and 
for  the  well-being  of  the  innumerable  creatures  that  surround 
us,  we  may  know,  indirectly,  it  is  true,  but  none  the  less  cer- 
tainly, the  design  of  the  Almighty  Creator. 

All  things  are  obviously  designed  for  use — all  the  innumer- 
able hosts  of  living  creatures  for  specific  purposes  ;  the  natures 
of  many  are  known  to  us  now;  every  day  is. adding  to  our 
knowledge,  and  a  time  will  assuredly  come  when  the  nature 
and  purposes  of  the  most  ferocious  of  wild  animals  and  the 
most  venomous  of  serpents  will  be  clearly  understood  and  ap- 
plied to  their  proper  uses.  It  is,  therefore,  the  obvious  design 
of  the  Creator  that  the  negro  should  be  useful,  should  labor, 
should  be  a  producer,  and  as  his  organism  forbids  this,  if  left 
to  himself,  it  is  evidently  intended  that  he  should  be  in  juxta- 
position with  the  superior  Caucasian.  It  is  equally  obvious 
that  the  tropical  latitudes  endowed  with  such  exuberant  fer- 
tility were  designed  for  cultivation,  for  use,  for  the  growth  and 
production  of  those  indigenous  products  foimd  nowhere  else  ex- 


"the   slave  trade."  171 

cept  within  the  tropics  and  tropicoid  regions  of  the  earth.  The 
organization  of  the  Caucasian  utterly  forbids  physical  labor 
under  a  tropical  sun.  He  may  live  there,  enjoy  life,  longevity, 
the  full  and  healthy  spring  of  all  his  faculties,  without  lassitude 
or  any  of  that  weight  upon  his  energies  which  ill-informed  per- 
sons have  supposed  followed  a  residence  in  these  chines,  but 
he  can  not  cultivate  the  earth  or  grow  the  products  of  the 
soil  by  his  own  labor.  The  negro  organism,  on  the  contrary, 
is  adapted  to  this  production,  and  the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun 
stimulate  and  quicken  his  energies,  instead  of  prostrating 
them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  former.  In  another  place  this  sub- 
ject will  be  fully  discussed,  and  therefore  it  will  be  sufficient  in 
this  place  to  simply  state  the  fact,  that  the  labor  of  the  negro 
can  alone  grow  the  indigenous  products  of  the  tropics,  and 
without  this  labor  the  great  tropical  centre  of  the  American 
continent  must  consequently  remain  a  barren  waste. 

The  introduction  of  negroes  into  the  Spanish  islands  of  the 
West  Indies  can,  therefore,  hardly  be  called  an  accident. 
Negro  servants  were  introduced  into  Spain  by  the  Arabian  and 
Moorish  conquerors.  From  time  immemorial  negro  "  slaves" 
were  the  favorite  household  servants  of  the  oriental  Caucasians 
— not  alone  because  they  were  the  most  docile  and  submissive 
of  human  beings,  but  because  they  were  the  most  faithful  and 
absolutely  incapable  of  betraying  their  masters,  and  scarcely  a 
Moorish  family  of  consideration  entered  Spain  without  being 
accompanied  by  some  of  these  trusty  and  favorite  servants.  The 
recent  Portuguese  discoveries  and  conquests  on  the  African 
coasts  had  also  brought  many  negroes  into  the  Peninsula,  and 
wl  ten  Columbus  and  the  Spaniards  began  their  settlements  in  the 
New  World,  there  were  negroes  to  be  found  in  almost  every 
town  in  Spain.  The  conquest  of  the  miserable  natives  of  His- 
paniola  and  Cuba,  and  their  partition  among  the  Spanish  adven- 
turers, failed  to  gratify  their  fierce  desire  for  wealth,  and  from 


172  "the   slave   teade." 

the  brutality  of  their  masters,  the  still  lurking  desire  of  these 
poor  creatures  for  their  former  condition,  or,  it  may  have  been, 
as  declared  by  the  Spanish  writers,  their  original  feebleness 
of  constitution,  they  rapidly  faded  away  in  the  mines  and  on 
the  plantations,  and  more  vigorous  laborers  became  an  abso- 
lute necessity,  if  cultivation,  progress,  and  civilization  were  to 
be  carried  on  in  these  islands.  It  was  thus  a  material  and  in- 
dustrial necessity,  rather  than  any  fancied  humanity  on  the 
part  of  Las  Casas  and  his  friends  in  behalf  of  the  Indians,  that 
carried  negroes  into  the  Spanish  islands.  Some  accompanied 
the  earliest  adventurers ;  they  were  seen  to  be  safe,  and  to  re- 
main perfectly  healthy  when  Spaniards  themselves  were  con- 
stantly smitten  down  by  the  fierce  suns  and  deadly  malaria  of 
the  tropics,  while  instead  of  the  drooping  and  listless  air  that 
distinguished  the  natives,  these  negroes  were  the  most  joyous 
and  contented  of  human  beings. 

The  interests  of  civilization  and  of  a  true  humanity  were, 
therefore,  united  with  the  humane  desires  of  Las  Casas  and  his 
friends  in  respect  to  the  natives,  and  negroes  soon  became  the 
sole  reliance  of  the  planters  and  others  to  whom  lands  had  been 
assigned  by  the  Spanish  princes.  Modern  writers — Helps, 
Prescott,  and  others — laboring  under  the  world-wide  miscon- 
ceptions of  our  times  in  regard  to  negroes,  have  expressed  aston- 
ishment at  the  (to  them)  strange  inconsistency  of  Las  Casas,  who, 
laboring  so  earnestly  in  behalf  of  the  Indians,  quite  unconsciously 
aided  in  substituting  the  negro,  and  thus,  as  they  suppose,  laid 
the  foundation  or  led  the  way  to  the  enslavement  of  one  race, 
while  working  for  the  freedom  of  another.  But  neither  Las 
Casas,  nor  any  one  else,  had  any  notion  of  freedom  or  slavery 
in  connection  with  these  negroes.  Such  a  thing  as  a  free  negro 
was  doubtless  unknown  in  Spain  or  anywhere  else,  or,  if  known, 
it  was  simply  because  he  had  lost  or  strayed  from  his  master. 
History  does  not,  it  is  true,  cast  much  light  on  the  subject,  but 


"the   slave  trade."  173 

it  is  certain  that  neither  Las  Casas  nor  any  of  his  cotempora* 
ries  had  any  conception  of  negro  freedom,  or  associated  with 
that  race  any  other  condition  or  social  status  than  that  which 
modern  writers  have  universally  designated  as  negro  slavery. 

Nor  was  he  laboring  for  the  freedom  of  the  Indians,  as  that 
term  is  now  understood.  Many,  perhaps  most  of  those  who 
defended  the  natives  from  the  oppressions  of  the  Spaniards, 
were  prompted  solely  by  religious  zeal.  These  poor  "  "heath- 
ens," they  held,  were  entitled,  not  to  freedom,  to  political  or 
social  rights  of  any  kind,  but  to  the  rights  of  religion,  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  Holy  Sacraments,  to  enjoy  the  privileges  which 
the  Church  promised  to  all  who  would  accept  them,  and  as  the 
ferocity  of  the  Spaniards  constantly  interfered  with  this,  hunted 
them  down  and  slaughtered  them  without  mercy,  or  rapidly 
destroyed  them  by  hard  labor  and  the  excessive  burthens 
heaped  upon  them  when  they  no  longer  resisted  their  invaders, 
the  priests  generally,  and  many  others,  sought  to  defend 
them. 

Las  Casas,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  generous  and  noble- 
hearted  man,  devoted  himself  for  many  years,  indeed  a  whole 
life-time,  to  the  cause  of  the  natives,  but  at  no  time  or  in  any 
way  was  he  laboring  for  their  freedom  or  to  secure  to  them 
social  or  political  rights  of  any  kind.  Other  priests  labored  to 
secure  their  spiritual  welfare,  or  what  they  believed  to  be  this, 
while  Las  Casas,  though  a  profoundly  religious  man,  sought 
their  material  preservation,  and  to  save  them  from  that  direful 
fate  of  total  extinction  which  even  then  was  threatened,  and 
which  finally  has  been  so  complete,  that  at  this  moment  there 
is  not  one  single  descendant  of  these  people  left  to  tell  the  tale 
of  their  destruction.  The  popular  notion,  theiefore,  that  Las 
Casas  was  the  author  or  originator  of  the  "  slave  trade,"  and 
of  American  (negro)  "  slavery,"  in  order  to  "  free"  the  native 
race,  is  altogether  groundless. 


174  "the   slave  trade." 

It  originated,  as  has  been  stated,  in  an  industrial  necessity  -— 
and  while  he  assented  to  it,  with  the  humane  belief,  doubtless, 
that  it  would  tend  to  benefit  the  native  race  in  relieving  it 
from  the  excessive  and  fatal  burthens  imposed  by  the  Span- 
iards, his  assent  or  dissent  could  have  no  influence  whatever 
on  the  subject.  And  as  he  was  not  laboring  for  the  freedom 
of  the  natives — for  nothing  whatever  but  their  mere  material 
preservation — of  course  he  could  have  no  doubts  or  anxieties  in 
regard  to  negroes  in  that  respect,  and  when  he  saw  them  re- 
sisting alike  the  deadly  malaria  of  the  climate  and  the  brutality 
of  their  masters,  and  contented  and  happy,  he  doubtless  felt 
that  it  was  a  wise  and  beneficent  arrangement  of  Providence 
that  had  thus  adapted  them  to  their  condition  and  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  great  purposes  of  civilization  and  human  progress. 

The  supply  of  negro  labor  in  San  Domingo,  Cuba,  and  other 
islands,  was  followed,  however,  by  extensive  importations  for 
the  main  land,  and  finally  the  trade,  falling  into  the  hands  of 
the  Dutch  and  English,  became  a  world-wide  commerce,  and 
negroes  were  taken  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  New 
World  where  there  were  found  buyers,  or  where  the  traders 
could  dispose  o*f  their  human  cargoes.  And  here  begins  the 
wrong  side  of  the  matter — the  cruelties,  injustice,  outrages,  and 
inhumanities  which,  together  with  the  false  theories,  morbid 
philanthropy,  and  a  certain  amount  of  falsehood, have  made  the 
term  "  slave  trade"  synonymous  with  everything  that  is  di- 
abolical and  devilish  that  the  imagination  can  conceive  of. 
The  Spanish  government  of  the  day  limited  the  introduction 
of  negroes,  and  provided  for  an  equal  number  of  females,  and 
encouraged  the  importation  of  children ;  indeed,  while  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  they  ever  contemplated  the  negro  as 
abstractly  entitled  to  the  rights  claimed  for  them  in  our  times, 
it  is  certain  that  both  the  governments  of  Charles  V.  and 
Philip  IT.  did  regard  them  as  human,  and  made  every  provi* 


"THE    SLAVE     TRADE."  175 

eion  that  was  proper  for  their  kind  and  humane  "treatment,  both 
in  regard  to  their  passage  from  Africa  and  their  treatment  on 
the  plantations.  But  when  the  physical  adaptation  of  the 
negro  had  become  so  clearly  demonstrated  in  the  Spanish 
islands,  the  British  and  Dutch  merchants  began  to  import  them 
in  such  multitudes,  and  the  prices  fell  so  low,  that  it  would 
not  pay  to  import  women  and  children,  and  then  began  that 
nameless  and  unspeakable  outrage,  not  merely  on  human  but 
on  animal  nature,  which  has  distinguished  this  trade  ever  since, 
and,  to  the  disgrace  of  all  Christendom,  which  at  this  moment 
distinguishes  it  in  the  neighboring  island  of  Cuba — the  sepa 
ration  of  the  sexes  and  the  violation  of  the  rights  of  reproduc- 
tion. Instead  of  a  simple  supply  of  negro  labor  essential  to 
tropical  production,  and  which  violated  no  instinct,  want,  or 
necessity  of  the  negro  nature,  ships  were  now  fitted  out  on 
speculation;  cargoes  of  men,  as  mere  work-animals,  were 
obtained  in  Africa  and  carried  to  any  port  where  there  was  a 
chance  of  a  market,  not  in  the  tropics  alone,  but  all  over  North 
America ;  and  the  British  Provinces  of  New  England,  as  well 
as  Cuba  and  Porto  Pico,  became  the  marts  for  traffic  in  human 
beings.  This  accounts  for  the  great  mortality  of  these  people 
in  the  islands.  In  general  terms,  it  may  be  said  the  negro  will 
work  no  more  than  he  ought  to  work ;  that  is,  nature  has  so 
adapted  him  that  he  can  not  be  forced  in  this  respect ;  but 
when  they  could  be  purchased  so  cheaply,  the  master  had  lit- 
tle interest  in  their  health,  and  together  with  the  very  small 
native  increase  going  on,  the  mortality  vastly  preponderated. 
The  New  England  as  well  as  the  Middle  States  were  fully  sup- 
plied with  these  cheap  negroes,  but  they  never  were  profitable, 
and  the  laws  of  industrial  adaptation  has  steadily  carried 
their  descendants  southward. 

The  "  slave  trade,"  after  the  first  fifty  years   of  its  com- 
mencement, up  to  the  American  Revolution,  may  be  said  to 


176  "the  slave  trade." 

have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  British  mainly,  of  the  merchants 
of  Bristol  arid  Liverpool.  These  traders,  as  has  been  said, 
made  it  a  mere  matter  of  commerce,  dealing  in  it  just  as  they 
did  in  any  other  article  of  commerce,  and  many  of  the  largest 
fortunes  in  England  are  believed  to  have  had  their  foundations 
laid  in  this  traffic.  So  far  as  the  colonists  participated  in  it, 
they  approached  somewhat  to  the  earliest  Spaniards,  and 
though  there  were  more  males  imported  than  there  were  fe- 
males, the  horrible  practice  of  the  islands,  which  forbade  these 
people  to  fulfill  the  command  of  the  Almighty,  and  multiply 
their  kind,  did  not  prevail  to  any  considerable  extent.  Nature 
always  recovers  from  the  outrages  committed  on  her  laws,  and 
though  no  legislation  or  human  means  has  sought  to  remedy 
the  disproportions  of  the  sexes,  they  are  now  probably  equal, 
though  of  the  imported  progenitors  of  our  negroes  probably 
two-thirds  at  least  were  males,  and  though  even  a  larger  pro- 
portion than  this  were  imported  into  Northern  ports,  there 
are  now  scarcely  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  the  Northern  States, 
while  the  descendants  of  those  imported  into  the  North  have 
expanded  into  four  millions  at  the  South!  What  a  lesson 
these  facts  present  to  the  blind  and  infatuated  "  friends  of  free- 
dom" in  Kansas,  and  the  equally  blind  believers  in  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787.  The  negro,  by  a  higher  law  than  human  enact- 
ments, goes  where  he  is  needed,  and  permanently  no  where 
else.  A  broad  and  liberal  survey  of  the  whole  ground — the 
nature  of  the  negro,  his  utter  uselessness  when  isolated  or  sep- 
arated from  the  white  man — his  organic  adaptation  to  tropical 
production — the  wonderful  fertility  of  tropical  soils — the  vast 
importance  of  their  peculiar  products  to  civilization  and  human 
well-being — demonstrates,  beyond  doupt  the  right  and  justice 
of  the  original  "  slave  trade,"  or  the  original  importation  of 
African  negroes  into  America.  The  abuses  that  finally  attended 
it  have  been  made  to  overshadow  the  thing  itself,  in  the  popular 


"the   slave   trade."  177 

estimation,  but  despite  all  these,  and  all  other  drawbacks,  it  is 
certain  that  the  introduction  of  these  negroes  has  resulted  in 
a  vastly  preponderating  good  to  our  race,  while  the  four  mil- 
lions of  Christianized  and  enlightened  negroes  in  our  midst, 
when  compared  with  any  similar  number  of  their  race  in  Africa, 
are  in  a  condition  so  immeasurably  happy  and  desirable,  that 
we  can  find  no  terms  that  will  sufficiently  express  it. 

The  frightful  tales  invented  of  their  cruel  treatment  on  the 
passage  from  Africa  may  be  dismissed  with  the  single  remark 
that  it  was  the  highest  interest  of  the  traders  to  take  the  utmost 
care  of  them,  and  if  that  be  not  sufficient,  with  the  simple  but 
pregnant  tact  that  the  average  mortality,  when  the  trade  was 
legal,  was  only  eleven  per  cent.,  while  the  illegal  trade,  the 
efforts  to  put  it  down,  the  false  philanthropy,  and  mistaken 
interference,  have  raised  the  mortality  to  something  like  forty 
per  cent. ! 

There  were  but  two  mistakes,  wrongs,  inhumanities,  outrages 
on  nature,  whatever  we  may  term  them,  involved  in  the 
"  slave  trade,"  so  far  as  we  were  concerned :  1st,  the  importa- 
tion mainly  of  males,  and  the  consequent  violation  of  the  laws 
of  reproduction — of  that  fundamental  and  universal  command 
of  the  Almighty  to  multiply  their  kind  and  to  replenish  the 
earth ;  and,  2d,  their  importation  into  northern  latitudes,  un- 
suited  to  the  physical  and  industrial  nature  of  the  negro.  But, 
as  has  been  said,  nature,  sooner  or  later,  recovers  from  every 
outrage  upon  her  laws,  and  while  we,  in  our  ignorance  anu 
folly,  have  been  disputing  over  our  petty  theories  in  respect  to 
this  subject,  her  reparatory  processes  have  silently  and  steadily 
gone  on  and  corrected  our  mistakes,  and,  therefore,  both  of  the 
real  wrongs  connected  with  the  "  slave  trade"  are  now  sub- 
stantially righted. 

It  is,  however,  discreditable  to  our  intelligence  that  the 
statute  book  of  the  nation  is  disfigured  by  our  laws  and  legis- 

8* 


178  "THE     SLAVE    TEADE." 

lation  on  this  subject.  England  has  waged  a  war  upon  the 
distinctions  of  nature  and  the  natural  relations  of  races,  ever 
since  we  threw  off  her  dominion,  and  set  up  a  new  system  of 
government  founded  on  the  fixed  and  unchangeable  laws  of 
nature.  The  preservation  of  her  own  system — the  rule  of 
classes  and  of  artificial  distinctions  among  men  of  the  same 
race — impels  her  by  a  blind  instinct  quite  as  much,  perhaps,  as 
reason,  to  pursue  this  policy,  and  therefore,  under  the  pretense 
of  putting  down  the  "  slave  trade,"  she  has  constantly  labored 
to  obliterate  the  distinctions  of  race,  and  force  or  corrupt  the 
white  men  of  America  into  affiliation  and  equality  with  negroes. 
The  war  upon  the  "  slave  trade"  was  simply  the  means  for 
accomplishing  her  ends — the  equalization  of  races  in  the  New 
World,  and  in  Canada,  the  West  Indies,  in  all  her  American 
possessions,  she  has  succeeded.  Negroes,  whites,  Indians,  and 
mongrels  are  all  alike  her  subjects,  and  the  distinctions  of  so- 
ciety, as  in  Europe,  are  wholly  artificial,  while  those  of  race, 
of  nature,  that  are  fixed  by  the  hand  of  the  Eternal,  are  impi- 
ously disregarded.  And  we  have  been  her  tools,  her  miserable 
dupes,  and  ourselves  labored  for  our  own  degradation,  to  ac- 
complish her  objects  and  obliterate  the  distinctions  of  ra:es. 
The  question  of  importing  more  negroes — to  keep  open  or  to 
prohibit  the  "  slave  trade": — was  and  is  a  question  of  expedi- 
ency, that  our  government  should  decide  for  itself,  without 
regard  to  the  opinions  or  policy  of  any  other  people.  But  to 
blindly  follow  England  in  her  nefarious  and  impious  efforts  to 
break  down  the  distinctions  of  race,  to  pronounce  the  conduct 
of  our  own  ancestors  infamous  and  worthy  of  death  because 
English  opinion  and  monarchical  influences  and  exigencies  de- 
mand it,  is  a  disgrace  to  the  manhood  of  our  people  and  the 
intelligence  of  our  statesmen  that  should  not  be  permitted  to 
disgrace  our  government  any  longer;  and  it  is  to  be  h:ped 
that  the  time  is  not  distant  when  this  disgraceful  legisr^U^n 
will  be  swept  from  our  statute  book. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

KATUEAL  RELATIONS  AND  NORMAL  CONDITION  OF  THE 
NEGRO. 

There  are  now  between  four  and  five  millions  of  negroes  in 
the  United  States.  They  or  their  descendants  must  remain 
forever — for  good  or  evil — an  element  of  our  population. 
What  are  their  natural  relations  to  the  whites  ? — what  their 
normal  condition  ? 

The  Almighty  has  obviously  designed  all  His  creatures — 
animal  as  well  as  human — for  wise,  beneficent,  and  useful  pur- 
poses. In  our  ignorance  .of  the  animal  world,  we  have  only 
domesticated  or  applied  to  useful  purposes  a  very  small  num- 
ber, the  horse,  the  ox,  ass,  dog,  etc. ;  but  these  we  practically 
understand,  so  that  even  the  most  ignorant  will  not  abuse 
them  or  violate  their  instincts.  The  most  ignorant  farmer  or 
laborer  would  never  attempt  to  force  the  dog  to  perform  the 
domestic  role  of  the  cat,  or  the  ox  that  of  the  horse,  or  the 
sheep  that  of  the  ass,  etc.  He  knows  the  natures  of  these  ani- 
mals— their  relations  to  himself  and  to  each  other,  and  governs 
them  accordingly. 

The  natural  relations  of  parent  and  offspring,  of  brothers 
and  sisters,  of  husbands  and  wives,  are  also  measurably  under- 
stood by  the  most  ignorant,  for  natural  instinct  quite  as  much 
as  reason  guides  us  in  these  things.  The  father  knows  that 
the  child  should  obey  him,  and  the  latter  feels  instinctively 
that  this  obedience  is  a  sacred  duty.  The  same  instinct  prompts 
the  brother  to  love  his  sister,  and  it  may  be  said  that  all  the 
relations  of  consanguinity,  and  the  duties  that  spring  from 


180  NORMAL    CONDITION     OP    THE    NEGEO. 

them,  are  regulated  more  by  instinct  than  by  reason.  There 
are  innumerable  books  written  on  this  subject,  to  teach  the 
duties  of  parents  and  offspring,  husbands  and  wives,  etc.,  but 
with  a  proper  cultivation  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  affections, 
just  perceptions  of  the  duties  involved  follow  intuitively. 

Passing  beyond  these  domestic  and  family  relations — the 
relations  of  individuals — of  one  man  to  another,  and  to  the 
State  or  general  citizenship,  are  less  understood,  for  here  nature 
must  be  led  by  reason,  and  though  there  are  certain  great  and 
fixed  facts  that  serve  as  landmarks  for  our  guidance,  we  must 
mainly  rely  upon  our  reason. 

It  is  true,  Christianity  indicated  these  relations  two  thousand 
years  ago ;  nevertheless,  they  are  almost  totally  disregarded 
in  the  Old  World ;  but  though  too  often  misunderstood  and 
misapplied  among  ourselves,  they  are  sufficiently  comprehended 
to  constitute  the  foundation  of  our  social  order. 

Another  advance,  and  we  arrive  at  the  l-elations  of  races — 
of  white  men  and  negroes — and  of  other  races  that  may  chance 
to  be  in  juxtaposition,  and  of  which  the  whole  world  may  be 
said  to  be  profoundly  ignorant  in  theory,  while  one-half  of  our 
people  have  justly  and  truly  solved  them  in  practice.  The 
social  order  of  the  South — the  social  and  legal  status  of  the 
negro — reposes  on  the  natural  relations  of  the  white  and  black 
races,  and,  as  has  been  observed,  while  the  world  is  ignorant 
of  these  relations,  the  people  of  the  South,  indeed  it  may  be 
said  the  American  people,  have  practically  solved  them,  and  to 
the  mutual  benefit  of  all  concerned.  But  before  we  can  enter 
on  a  discussion  of  the  natural  relations  and  social  adaptations 
of  races,  we  must  first  clearly  understand  the  relations  that  we 
bear  to  each  other  as  individuals,  and  to  the  State  or  aggre- 
gate of  individuals. 

All  the  individuals  of  a  species,  whether  animal  or  human, 
of  course  have  the  same  faculties  the  same  wants,  in  a  word, 


NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGEO.         181 

the  same  specialties.  Occasionally  chance — some  accident,  re- 
mote or  immediate — deforms  or  blights  individuals  ;  they  may 
be  idiotic,  insane,  or  otherwise  incapable,  but  these  are  excep- 
tional cases  that  do  not  disturb  the  great,  fixed,  and  unchange- 
able equality,  sameness,  or  uniformity  of  the  race.  The  white 
or  Caucasian  race,  as  has  been  observed,  varies  much  more 
than  any  other  race.  There  are  tall  men  and  short  men,  giants 
and  pigmies,  blondes  and  brunettes,  red-haired  and  black- 
haired,  but  the  nature  remains  the  same  ;  and  if  they  were  all 
placed  under  the  same  circumstances  of  climate,  government, 
religion,  etc.,  all  would  exhibit  the  same  moral  characteris- 
tics, and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  same  physical  appearances. 
This  is  sufficiently  illustrated  among  ourselves  every  day. 
Almost  universally  our  people  have  sprung  from  the  "  lower 
classes"  of  European  society.  The  coai*se  skin,  big  hands  and 
feet,  the  broad  teeth,  pug  nose,  etc.,  of  the  Irish  and  German 
laborer  pass  away  in  a  generation  or  two,  and  then-  American 
offspring  have  more  delicate  and  classical  features  than  even 
the  most  favored  and  privileged  European  aristocracy.  Hav- 
ing the  same  faculties,  the  same  wants,  etc.,  it  is  a  self-evident 
truth  that  they  are  entitled  to  the  same  rights,  the  same  oppor- 
tunities, to  live  out  the  nature  with  which  God  has  endowed 
them.  The  Divine  Author  of  Christianity  promulgated  this 
vital  truth  with  great  impressiveness.  He  selected  his  dis- 
ciples from  the  lowest  and  most  oppressed  classes  of  the  people, 
and  thundered  his  most  terrible  denunciations  in  the  ears  of 
the  sacerdotal  aristocracy.  The  great  body  of  the  Jewish 
people  were  mere  beasts  of  burden  to  their  brethren — the 
priestly  oligarchy — which  governed  the  State  and  lived  in  idle 
luxury  on  the  toil,  ignorance,  superstition,  and  misery  of  the 
people.  On  all  occasions  these  oppressors  were  denounced, 
and  the  great  and  everlasting  truth  that  God  was  no  respecter 
of  persons,  and  all  men  equally  precious  in  His  sight — even 


182  NORMAL     CONDITION    OF    THE    NEGBO. 

the  beggar  Lazarus  and  the  repentent  Magdalene — were  the 
daily  teachings  of  Christ.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  persecution  and  final  crucifixion  of  the  Author  of  the 
Christian  religion  was  intended,  by  the  rulers  of  the  Jews,  to 
crush  out  the  great  doctrine  of  equality,  and  thus  to  preserve 
their  ascendency  over  the  minds  and  fortunes  of  the  people. 
The  Divine  ordinance — to  "  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have 
them  do  unto  us" — is  a  complete  exposition  of  oiu*  natural  re- 
lations to  each  other,  and  an  indestructible  rule  of  nature  as 
well  as  a  religious  obligation.  All  men — that  is,  all  who  be- 
long to  the  race  or  species — having  the  same  nature  and 
designed  by  the  Creator  for  the  same  purposes,  the  same  rights 
and  the  same  duties,  it  is  an  obvious  inference  that  all  human 
governments  should  rest  on  this  great  fundamental  truth. 
No  man  should  be  permitted,  indeed  no  man  should  be  base 
enough  to  claim  privileges  denied  to  his  fellow,  or  to  any  class 
of  his  fellows,  and  the  same  great  principle  which  Christ 
ordained  should  guide  His  followers  in  their  personal  relations, 
should  be  the  only  legitimate  rule  in  their  political  relations. 
To  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have  them  do  to  us — to  recog- 
nize in  all  other  men  the  rights  we  claim  for  ourselves — 1» 
admit  those  reciprocal  obligations  which,  in  truth,  spring  from 
the  necessities  of  our  being — in  short,  to  demand  equal  rights 
for  ourselves,  and  to  admit  the  same  rights  on  the  part  of  our 
fellows,  seems  so  obvious,  so  instinctive,  so  just,  and  indeed 
self-evident,  that  an  intelligent  and  just  mind  wonders  how  it 
ever  could  be  otherwise,  or  that  systems  of  government  can 
exist  in  our  own  enlightened  times  in  utter  contradiction  to 
such  simple  and  self-evident  truths.  Government,  the  State, 
the  aggregate  citizenship,  based  on  the  great  fundamental 
truth  of  equality,  becomes  a  simple,  beneficent,  and  easily  un- 
derstood institution.  It  leaves  all  men  where  God  and  nature 
places  them,  in  natural  relation  to  each  other.     Its  functions, 


NORMAL    CONDITION     OF     THE    NEGRO.  183 

however  complicated  the  details,  are  simply  protective,  leaving 
individuals  to  ascend  or  descend  in  the  social  scale,  just  aa 
their  industry,  cultivation,  and  moral  worth  may  be  apprecia- 
ted by  their  fellow-citizens.  It  protects  one  man  from  the 
violence  or  injustice  of  another,  and  the  aggregate  citizenship 
or  nation  from  foreign  aggression. 

It  is  a  misnomer  to  speak  of  government  conferring,  rights ; 
it  may  (or  the  thing  called  government  in  other  lands  may) 
take  away,  suppress,  or  withhold  rights; but  rights, as  declared 
by  Mr.  Jefferson, are  inherent  and  in  fact  inseparable  from  in- 
dividual existence.  God  has  endowed  evei-y  man  with  the 
capacity  of  self-government,  and  imposed  this  self-government 
as  a  duty  as  well  as  a  right.  He  has  given  him  certain  wants 
instincts,  desires,  etc.,  and  endowed  him  with  reason  to  gov- 
ern and  guide  these  things.  As  a  citizen,  he  of  course  does 
not,  or  can  not  surrender  any  of  his  natural  rights  or  control 
over  himself.  The  State  protects  him  from  wrong  or  injus- 
tice, but  himself  a  portion  of  the  citizenship,  he  still  governs 
himself.  It  is  a  contradiction  to  suppose  that  one  man  can 
govern  another  better  than  he  can  govern  himself — that  is, 
under  the  same  circumstances,  and  therefore  it  is  palpably 
absurd  to  limit  suffrage  or  to  exclude  a  portion  of  the  people 
from  participation  in  the  government.  All  being  naturally 
equal — for  though  some  men  may  have  more  mental  capacity 
than  others,  as  we  sometimes  see  some  have  greater  physical 
powers — they  have  all  the  same  nature ;  and  therefore  govern 
themselves  and  fulfill  the  purposes  of  their  creation  when  they 
all  vote  at  elections  and  participate  in  the  making  of  laws. 
For  purposes  of  convenience,  a  limited  number  of  the  people  are 
delegated  to  conduct  the  government,  but  the  popular  will, 
the  desire  of  the  people,  the  rule  of  the  entire  citizenship,  is 
complete;  every  vote  tells,  every  man's  voice  is  heard,  every 
one  governs  himself.     And  the  government,  limited  or  r*  .her 


184  NORMAL    CONDITION    OP    THE      NEGRO. 

confined  to  its  legitimate  function  of  protection,  leaves  every 
one  a  complete  and  boundless  liberty  to  do  every  tbing  or  any 
thing  that  his  instincts,  wishes,  caprices  even,  may  prompt 
him  to  do,  so  long  as  he  does  not  infringe  upon  the  rights,  in- 
terests, etc.,  of  others. 

Such,  then,  are  the  natural  relations  we  bear  to  each  other, 
and  the  social  and  governmental  adaptations  that  spring  from 
them.  The  mere  conventional  formula  may  be  varied  at  times 
■ — the  circle  of  individual  action  contracted  or  expanded  as  the 
public  exigencies  may  demand,  but  the  right  and  the  duty  of 
every  man  to  an  equal  participation  in  the  government,  or  in 
the  creation  of  laws  which  govern  all,  is  vital,  and  every  man. 
denied  this  is  necessarily  a  slave,  for  be  is  then  governed  by 
the  will  of  others  and  not  by  his  own,  as  God  and  nature  have 
ordained  he  should  be. 

There  are  no  contradictions  or  discords  in  nature.  All  crea- 
tures, and  the  purposes  God  has  assigned  to  them,  are  per- 
fectly harmonious ;  and  all  their  relations  to  each  other,  and 
the  duties  that  spring  from  them,  are  in  perfect  accord.  It  is 
our  ignorance,  and  sometimes  our  caprices  and  vices,  that  in- 
terrupt this  harmony ;  but  it  is  consoling  to  know,  that  hap- 
piness is  inseparable  from  the  due  fulfilment  of  our  duties,  and 
therefore  the  wiser  the  world  becomes,  the  better  it  will  be. 
The  man  who  loves  his  wife  the  most  will  also  have  the  ten- 
derest  affection  for  his  children ;  those  who  are  most  careful  to 
respect  the  rights  of  others  will  be  the  most  secure  in  their 
own  rights,  and  the  government,  or  slate,  or  nation  based  on 
the  natural  relations  that  men  bear  to  each  other,  will  be  the 
most  prosperous  and  powerful. 

"We  are,  it  is  true,  at  a  great  distance  from  the  practical  or 
complete  development  of  our  system,  but  in  theory  it  is  right, 
and  most  Americans  recognize  the  truth  and  justice  of  its  ele- 
mentary principles.     On  the  contrary,  Europeans,  and  espe* 


NORMAL    CONDITIO  IT     OF    THE    NEGBO.         185 

cially  Englishmen,  have  scarcely  a  perception  or  glimpse  of 
men's  natural  relations  to  each  other,  and  their  whole  social 
and  political  system,  if  thus  it  may  be  called,  is  in  direct  con- 
flict with  these  relations,  with  the  vital  principle  of  democracy, 
with  reason  and  common  sense.  A  woman  is  the  chief  of  the 
nation,  whose  husband  is  her  subject — thus  violating  the  re- 
lations of  the  sexes — of  husband  and  wife — and  thrusting 
her  from  the  normal  position  of  woman  as  well  as  contradict- 
ing the  relations  and  duties  of  citizenship.  God  created 
her,  adapted  her,  and  designed  her,  for  a  wife  and  mother,  a 
help-mate  to  her  husband  and  the  teacher  and  guide  of  her 
children;  He  endowed  her  with  corresponding  instincts  to 
love,  venerate,  and  obey  her  husband  and  devote  her  life  to  the 
happiness  and  welfare  of  her  offspring,  and  to  trample  on  His 
laws — to  smother  these  instincts  and  force  this  woman  to  be  a 
queen,  a  chief  of  state,  the  ruler  over  millions  of  men,  is  as 
sinful  as  it  is  irrational,  as  great  an  outrage  on  herself — her 
womanhood — as  it  is  on  the  people  who  suffer  from  it.  The 
annual  expenditure  for  royalty  amounts  to  several  millions, 
and  requires  probably  that  some  thirty  thousand  people  should 
be  employed  or  compelled  to  devote  their  labor  to  this  pur- 
pose. Thirty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  ignorant, 
abject,  and  miserable,  with  no  chance  whatever  for  education, 
for  the  cultivation  of  their  faculties  or  the  healthy  develop- 
ment of  their  natures,  are  bound  to  lives  of  toil  and  a  mere  ani- 
mal existence  in  order  to  furnish  means  for  this  one  family, 
not  of  happiness,  but  of  boundless  folly,  which  is  supposed  to 
constitute  royal  dignity.  God  created  this  woman  with  the  same 
faculties,  endowed  her  with  the  same  instincts,  and  designed 
her  for  the  same  purposes  as  all  other  women  in  England,  but 
the  human  law,  disregarding  the  evident  designs  of  the  Al- 
mighty, has  impiously  sought  to  make  her  a  different  and 
superior  being,  to  reverse  the  natural  relations  of  the  sexes, 


186         NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE    NEGRO. 

to  render  her  husband  subject  to  her  will,  to  place  her 
above  many  millions  of  men,  the  head  of  the  state,  to  even 
force  this  fragile,  weak,  and  helpless  female  to  be  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  their  armies,  and  they  crush  and  pervert 
thirty  thousand  other  people  out  of  the  natural  order,  and 
doom  them  to  a  mere  animal  existence,  in  order  to  sustain  this 
one  family  in  "  royal  splendor."  The  two  things  are  insepa- 
rable— the  violation  of  the  natural  relation  drags  after  it  thesa 
frightful  consequences.  All  these  people  thus  doomed  to  ig- 
norance and  toil,  to  support  the  luxury  and  grandeur  of  roy- 
alty, would,  under  the  same  circumstances,  be  just  as  grand, 
majestic,  and  royal  as  the  present  royal  family,  and  the  wrong 
in  the  present  instance  may  be  measured  or  tested  by  the  con- 
sideration that  of  these  thirty  thousand  poor,  ignorant,  abject, 
and  toiling  creatures,  whose  labor,  or  the  proceeds  of  whose  labor 
is  appropriated  to  the  support  of  royalty,  the  majority  would 
doubtless  exhibit  more  capacity  and  refinement  than  those  who 
rule  over  them,  if,  standing  where  nature  placed  them  all  in 
common,  they  were  permitted  to  compete  for  superiority. 
The  same  unnatural  order  prevails  on  the  Continent  :  the 
natural  equality  that  God  has  stamped  upon  the  race; — for 
they  are  all  white  men — is  disregarded,  and  though  the  people 
are  ignorant,  debased  by  poverty,  excessive  toil,  and  misery, 
the  status  quo  is  preserved  alone  by  force.  Nearly  four  mil- 
lions of  armed  men  are  kept  in  constant  readiness  to  repress 
and  keep  down  the  instinct  of  equality,  while  a  "  civil"  force 
of  perhaps  a  million  more  is  constantly  acting  in  conjunction 
with  the  former,  in  preserving  that  artificial  and  unnatural 
rule  which  the  few — a  mere  fraction  of  the  population — exer- 
cise over  the  many.  And  so  instinctive  and  irrepressible  is 
this  sentiment — this  innate  and  eternal  law  written  by  the 
finger  of  the  Almighty  on  the  soul  and  organism  of  the  race — 
that  if  these  armed  forces  were  withdrawn,  every  government 


NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGEO.         187 

in  Europe  would  be  demolished  within  a  week.  Nor  can  the 
existing  condition  be  preserved  much  longer.  Those  writers 
ignorant  of  the  essential  nature  of  the  race,  often  indulge  in 
absurd  fancies  in  regard  to  the  future  of  European  society. 
They  are  good  enough  to  say  that  democratic  institutions  may 
do  for  America,  but  that  they  will  not  suit  the  people  of  Eu- 
rope, and  therefore  monarchy  is  to  be  a  permanent  institution. 
Democracy  or  equality  is  a  fact  rather  than  a  principle.  Be- 
ings who  have  the  same  nature,  the  same  wants,  and  the  same 
instincts  will  struggle,  as  they  must  struggle,  for  ever,  to  enjoy 
the  same  rights  and  to  live  out  the  same  life.  And  though  they 
are  chained  down  by  ignorance  and  misery  as  well  as  by  the 
armed  hordes  of  then-  tyrants,  there  can  be  no  peace,  no  ces- 
sation of  the  conflict,  no  stopping-place  short  of  the  universal 
recognition  of  their  natural  relations  to  each  other,  and  that 
fixed  and  eternal  equality  which  the  Almighty  Creator  has 
stamped  upon  the  race  and  fixed  for  ever  in  its  physical  and 
mental  structure. 

If  the  natural  relations  that  men  bear  to  each  other  are  thus 
misunderstood  and  disregarded  in  Europe,  it  may  well  be  sup- 
posed that  they  are  wholly  ignorant  of  the  natural  relations  of 
races,  and  without  even  the  remotest  conception  of  the  rela- 
tions that  naturally  exist  between  white  men  and  negroes.  It 
is  therefore  a  subject  never  introduced  or  treated  of — a  terra 
incognita  to  the  European  mind, — and  dependent  as  we  are  on 
European  authority,  the  natural  relation  of  races,  and  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  the  negro,  have  only  quite  recently  become  a 
6ubject  of  American  investigation. 

But  while  our  writers  and  men  of  science  have  been,  and 
quite  generally  are  even  now,  wholly  ignorant  of  these  rela- 
tions, indeed,  worse  still,  in  slavish  subserviency  to  European 
dictation,  have  accepted  the  absurd  theories  of  the  former  in 
explanation  of  the  phenomena  constantly  presented  to  their 


188  NOEMAL    CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGEO. 

view,  our  people  have  practically  solved  their  natural  r(  lations 
to  the  inferior  race,  and  placed  or  rather  retained  the  negro  in 
his  normal  condition. 

There  are  eight  millions  of  white  people  and  four  millions 
of  negroes  in  juxtaposition.  The  latter  are,  in  domestic  subor- 
dination and  social  adaptation,  corresponding  with  their  wants, 
their  instincts,  their  faculties,  the  nature  with  which  God  has 
endowed  them.  They  are  different  and  subordinate  creatures, 
and  they  are  in  a  different  and  subordinate  social  position,  har- 
monizing with  their  natural  relations  to  the  superior  race,  and 
therefore  they  are  in  their  normal  condition.  This,  if  not 
exactly  a  sell-evident,  is  certainly  an  unavoidable  truth— a 
truth  that  no  amount  or  extent  of  sophistry,  self-deception, 
authoritative  dictum,  or  perverted  reasoning  can  gainsay  a 
moment,  for  it  rests  upon  facts,  fixed  forever  by  the  hand  of 
the  Creator.  The  negro  is  different  from,  and  inferior  to  the 
white  man.  He  is  in  a  different  and  inferior  position,  and  there- 
fore, of  necessity,  is  in  a  normal  condition.  That,  as  a  general 
proposition,  is  true  beyond  doubt,  for  there  is  no  place  or  mate- 
rial for  doubt.  God  has  made  him  different — widely  different, 
as  has  been  shown ;  that  difference  is  as  unchangeable  as  are 
any  of  the  works  of  the  Almighty.  He  has  therefore  designed 
him,  of  course,  for  different  purposes — for  a  different  and  sub- 
ordinate social  position  whenever  and  wherever  the  races  are 
in  juxtaposition.  It  needs  no  argument  to  prove  this  truth, 
great  and  startling  as  it  must  be  to  those  who  have  never 
before  contemplated  it.  The  facts — the  simple,  palpable,  un- 
changeable facts — only  need  to  be  stated,  and  the  inference, 
the  inductive  fact,  the  absolute  truth,  is  unavoidable.  God  has 
made  the  negro  different  from,  and  inferior  to  the  white  man. 
They  are  in  juxtaposition — the  human  law  corresponds  with 
the  higher  law  of  the  Almighty ;  the  negro  is  in  a  different 
and  subordinate  position,  and  therefore  in  a  normal  condition 


HOBMAL     CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGKO.  189 

But  it  may  be  said  by  some  that  while  this  is  so,  or  while  the 
negro,  in  juxtaposition,  must  be  subordinate,  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  actual  condition  of  things  at  the  South  is  essentially 
right,  natural,  and  just.  They  would  be  mistaken,  however, 
for  the  facts  involved  do  not  permit  or  admit  of  any  such 
assertion.  The  white  man  is  superior,  the  negro  is  inferior, 
and  therefore  the  inference  is  unavoidable  that  the  latter  is  in 
his  normal  condition  whenever  the  social  law  or  legal  adapta 
tion  is  in  harmony  with  these  natural  relations  of  white  men 
and  negroes.  It  is  true  that  a  wide  field  for  inquiry,  for  com- 
parison, for  arriving  at  relative  truth,  is  here  opened  to  our 
view,  but  the  simple,  precise,  and  unavoidable  truth  remains 
unaltered  and  unalterable — the  different  and  inferior  negro  is 
in  a  different  and  inferior  social  position  at  the  South,  and 
therefore  in  harmony  with  the  natural  relations  of  the  races, 
he  is  in  a  normal  condition.  If  it  were  said  that  the  existing 
condition  were  defective — that  in  some  respects  injustice  were 
done  the  negro — that  there  was  a  wide  field  for  improvement 
in  the  social  habits  of  the  South — in  short,  for  the  progress  and 
improvement  of  Southern  society,  then  there  would  be  reason, 
perhaps,  in  such  suggestions.  But  to  say  or  to  assert  that 
the  condition  of  the  negro  at  the  South  was  wrong  or  unjust 
in  its  essential  character,  would  be  altogether  absurd,  and  an 
abuse  of  language  that  none  but  those  wholly  ignorant  of  the 
facts  involved  would  ever,  or  could  ever,  indulge  in.  The 
simple  statement  of  the  facts  lying  at  the  base  of  Southern  so- 
ciety, however  false  our  perceptions  of  them,  or  whatever  our 
ignorance  of  them,  or  whatever  may  be  the  perversity  of  those 
who  will  not  seek  to  comprehend  them,  is  sufficient,  when 
clearly  presented,  to  convince  every  rational  mind  that  the 
negro  is  in  his  normal  condition  only  when  in  social  subordi- 
nation to  the  white  man. 

Bu„L  however  obvious  or  irresistible  this  momentous  truth, 


190  NOEMAL     CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGRO 

when  it  is  thus  forced  upon  the  mind  as  an  inductive  fact,  it  is 
also  demonstrable  through  processes  of  comparison,  which,  if 
not  quite  so  direct  or  palpable,  are  equally  certain  and  reliable. 
And  the  normal  condition  of  the  negro,  or  the  social  adapta- 
tion at  the  South,  necessarily  involves  the  protection  as  well  aa 
the  subordination  of  the  inferior  race.  The  two  things  are  in 
fact  inseparable,  as  in  the  case  of  parents  and  children,  or  the 
relations  of  husband  and  wife,  or  indeed  any  condition  of 
things  resting  on  a  basis  of  natural  law. 

Any  one  capable  of  reasoning  at  all  must  see  that  four  mil- 
liens  of  subordinate  negroes  in  juxtaposition  with  eight  mil- 
lions of  superior  white  men,  must  be  in  a  subordinate  social 
position — that  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  the  primal 
law,  obviously  demands  that  the  superior  shall  place  the  in- 
ferior in  just  such  position  as  its  own  interests  and  safety  may 
need — that  it  may  and  should  even  destroy  it,  utterly  obliter- 
ate it  from  the  earth,  if  its  own  safety  requires  it — though 
such  instance  never  could  happen  unless  some  outside  force  or 
intermeddling  brought  it  about — that  the  mode  or  manner,  or 
special  means  are  of  secondary  consideration,  and  to  be  deter- 
mined or  worked  out  according  to  circumstances,  the  habits, 
progress,  and  condition  of  the  master  race.  Contemplating, 
therefore,  the  great  existing  fact — the  juxtaposition  of  vast 
masses  of  widely  different  social  elements  at  the  South — the 
inference  is  unavoidable,  that  it  is  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the 
dominant  race  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  such  a  population, 
and  that,  for  the  common  welfare  and  safety,  they  may  and  must 
place  the  negro  element  just  where  their  own  reason  and  ex- 
perience assure  them  is  proper  and  desirable.  This  has  been 
done,  and  is  done,  but  instead  of  the  State  or  government  pro- 
viding directly  for  these  things,  individuals  are  left,  to  a  great 
extent  at  least,  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  subordinate 
race.    The  motive  of  personal  interest,  therefore,  is  brought 


NORMAL    CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGEO.  191 

into  action — a  motive  often,  doubtless,  stronger  than  affection, 
and  though,  like  the  latter,  it  will  not  always  save  the  weak 
and  dependent  from  wrong  and  cruelty,  it  usually  serves  as  a 
sufficient  protection.  The  father  loves  his  child,  the  being  so 
inferior,  so  weak  and  dependent  on  his  affection.  He  has  abso- 
lute control  over  the  actions,  the  labor,  the  time,  .habits,  etc., 
of  his  son,  may  compel  him  to  labor  for  him,  or  hire  out  or  sell 
his  services  to  another,  and  it  is  only  on  rare  occasions  that 
this  natural  affection  of  the  father  is  not  sufficient  protection 
for  the  offspring,  and  the  State  is  compelled  to  interpose  its 
power  to  save  the  latter  from  the  parent's  cruelty.  It  is  the 
utmost  interest  of  the  father  to  treat  his  offspring  with  kind- 
ness, and  though  affection  is  the  dominant  feeling,  his  real  in- 
terests are  always  advanced  by  this  treatment,  so  that  it  might 
be  said  that  the  man  who  loves  his  children  most  will  have  the 
most  useful  and  the  best  children.  And  in  the  relation  of  hus- 
band and  wife  a  similar  result  necessarily  follows :  the  husband 
who  loves  his  wife  most  tenderly  will — other  things  being 
equal — always  have  the  best  wife,  and  the  wife  who  loves  her 
husband  and  children  most  devotedly  will  be  rewarded  by  the 
greatest  love  and  the  greatest  happiness  in  return. 

In  the  case  of  the  master  and  so-called  slave,  interest  instead 
of  affection  is  the  dominant  feeling ;  but  even  here  they  are 
inseparable  as  well  as  in  the  relations  just  referred  to.  It 
is  the  utmost  interest  of  the  master  to  treat  his  negro  subject 
with  the  greatest  kindness,  and  in  exact  proportion  as  he  does 
go,  he  calls  into  action  the  affections  of  the  latter.  Every  one 
who  practically  understands  the  negro,  knows  that  the  strong- 
est affection  his  nature  is  capable  of  feeling  is  love  for  his  mas- 
ter— that  affection  for  wife,  parents,  or  offspring,  all  sink  into 
insignificance  hr.  comparison  with  the  strong  and  devoted  love 
he  gives  to  the  superior  being  who  guides,  cares,  and  provides 
for  all  his  wants. 


192  NORMAL    CONDITION     OF    THE     NEGRO. 

There  is,  then,  this  radical  difference  between  parent  and 
child,  and  master  and  "  slave" — the  first,  prompted  by  affec- 
tion, is  rewarded  by  interest,  while  the  latter,  impelled  by 
interest,  is  followed  by  affection  ;  and  the  grand  result  in  both 
cases  is  happiness,  well-being,  the  mutual  benefit  and  common 
welfare  of  all  concerned — that  universal  reward  which  God 
bestows  on  all  His  creatures,  when,  recognizing  their  natural 
relations  to  each,  they  adapt  their  domestic  habits  and  social 
regulations  to  those  relations. 

The  popular  mind  of  the  North,  so  deplorably  ignorant  of 
all  the  facts  of  Southern  society,  has  a  general  conception,  per- 
haps, of  negro  subordination  at  the  South,  but  none  whatever 
of  the  reciprocities  of  the  social  condition.  The  negro — a  dif- 
ferent and  inferior  creature — must  be  in  a  social  position  har- 
monizing with  this  great,  fundamental,  and  unchangeable  fact ; 
but  while  he  owes  obedience,  natural,  organic,  and  spontane- 
ous, he  also  has  the  natural  right  of  protection.  Or,  in  other 
words,  while  he  owes  obedience  to  his  master,  the  latter  owes 
him  protection,  care,  guidance,  and  provision  for  all  his  wants, 
and  he  can  not  relieve  himself  of  this  duty  or  these  duties 
without  damaging  himself.  For  example :  the  master  who 
overworked  his  people,  or  underfed  them,  or  treated  them 
cruelly  in  any  way,  would  necessarily  compromise  his  interests 
to  the  precise  extent  that  he  practiced,  or  sought  to  practice, 
these  cruelties.  They  would  become  feeble  from  over-exer- 
tion, or  weak  and  prostrated  from  the  want  of  healthy  food; 
while  indifference  to  the  master's  interests,  sullenness,  per- 
haps sometimes  fierce  hate,  would  impel  them  to  damage  his 
property,  and  in  any  and  every  case  their  labor  would  be 
less  valuable.  Furthermore,  God  has  so  adapted  the  negro 
that  he  can  not  be  overworked ;  and  though  the  master  or 
overseer  may  kill  him  in  the  effort,  he  can  not,  nor  can  any 
human  power,  force  him  beyond  a  given  point,  or  compel  him 


NORMAL    CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGEO.  198 

to  that  extreme  exertion  which  the  poor  white  laborer  of  Eu- 
rope is  often  forced  into.  Subordination  and  protection,  the 
obedience  of  the  inferior  and  the  care  of  the  superior,  the  sub- 
jection of  the  negro  and  the  guidance  of  the  white  man,  are 
therefore  inseparable,  and  when  we  outgrow  and  abandon  the 
mental  habits  borrowed  from  Europe  and  designate  the  social 
condition  where  these  elements  exist,  by  a  proper  term  or 
word,  it  should  be  a  compound  one  that  embodies  both  of 
these  things. 

Such,  then,  are  the  domestic  habits  and  social  adaptations 
at  the  South,  or  where  widely  different  races  are  in  juxtaposi- 
tion, and  which,  in  truth,  spring  from  the  necessities  of  social 
existence  whenever  they  are  found  together.  But,  as  already 
remarked,  the  truth,  essential  justice,  beneficence,  and  neces- 
sity of  this  condition — this  subordination  on  the  one  hand 
and  protection  on  the  other — while  an  obvious,  and,  indeed, 
unavoidable  oonclusion  or  inference  from  the  great  and  un- 
changeable facts  involved — are  equally  demonstrable  by  com- 
parison with  other  conditions.  Or,  in  other  words,  while 
the  mere  statement  of  existing  facts,  in  their  natural  order 
and  their  true  relations,  irresistibly  and  unavoidably  forces 
the  mind  to  the  conclusion  that  Southern  society  reposes 
on  a  basis  of  natural  law  and  everlasting  truth,  its  essential 
justice,  naturalness,  and  beneficence  may  be  made  equally 
clear  to  the  mind  by  comparing  it  with  other  conditions 
where  these  elements  are  found  to  exist.  We  absolutely 
know  nothing  of  the  negro  of  antiquity  except  that  recently 
revealed  on  the  Egyptian  monuments,  through  the  labors  of 
Champolion  and  others,  and  possibly  a  glimpse  occasionally 
of  negro  populations  through  Roman  history.  The  ignorant 
Abolitionists,  and  the  scarcely  less  ignorant  European  ethnolo- 
gists, on  this  subject,  fancy  negro  empires  and  grand  civil* 

9 


194         NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGEO. 

Izatiuns  long  since  extinct ;  and  Livingstone  and  others,  with 
the  false  and  nonsenical  notion  that  there  should  be  found 
remains  of  these  imaginary  empires,  of  course  succeeded  in 
finding  them  occasionally,  or  the  interests  of  the  "  friends  of 
humanity"  would  languish,  and  perhaps  subside  altogether 
But  the  author  desires  to  say  to  the  reader  that  while,  as  an 
anatomist,  he  knoics  that  an  isolated  civilized  negro  is  just  as  im- 
possible as  a  straight-haired  or  white-skinned  negro,  he  has  also 
consulted  history,  ancient  and  modern,  European  and  Orien- 
tal, Pagan  and  Christian,  and  in  the  tout  ensemble  of  the  ex- 
perience of  mankind  there  is  nothing  written — book,  pamphlet, 
or  manuscript — in  the  world  that  casts  any  light  whatever  on 
this  matter,  or  that  authorizes  the  notion  that  populations, 
where  the  negro  element  dominated,  had  a  history.  Since 
the  great  "  anti-slavery"  imposture  of  modern  times  began, 
there  are  many  writers  and  lecturers  who  assume  such  things, 
as  that  negro  empires  had  often  existed  and  exercised  vast  influ- 
ences on  the  progress  of  mankind — that  the  rich  and  powerful 
republic  of  Carthage  was  negro — that  even  Hannibal,  the  man 
who  so  long  contested  the  empire  of  the  world  with  the  grand 
old  Romans,  was  a  negro — indeed,  some  of  these  ignorant  and 
impious  people  have  assumed  that  Christ  was  a  negro  ;  but 
it  is  repeated,  there  is  no  negro  history,  nothing  whatever, 
except  what  we  now  see  on  the  Egyptian  monuments,  that 
indicate  the  position  of  the  negro  or  the  condition  of  society 
when  in  juxtaposition  with  white  men. 

As  depicted  on  the  monuments,  the  negro  was  then  as  he  is 
now  at  the  South,  in  a  position  of  subordination ;  while  iso- 
lated, he  was  as  he  is  now,  a  simple,  unproductive,  non-advanc- 
ing savage.  In  this  condition  of  isolation  he  multiplies  him- 
self, and  therefore  is  in  a  natural  condition.  His  acute  and 
powerful  senses  make  amends  for  his  limited  intelligence,  and 
enable  him  to  contend  with  the  fiercer  and  more  powerful  crea- 


HOEMAL    CONDITION     OP    THE    NEGRO.  195 

tures  of  the  animal  creation,  while  the  fervid  suns  and  luxuriant 
soils  of  the  tropics,  where  the  earth  may  be  said  to  produce 
spontaneously,  enable  him  to  live  with  little  more  exertion 
than  simply  to  gather  their  rich  and  nutritious  products.  It  is 
a  natural  condition,  so  far  as  it  goes,  for,  as  has  been  said,  he 
increases  and  multiplies  his  kind ;  but  it  can  not  have  been 
designed  as  the  permanent  condition  of  the  race,  for  that  in- 
volves the  anomaly  of  waste,  uselessness,  a  broad  blank  in  the 
economy  of  the  universe.  But  as  that  aspect  of  the  subject 
will  be  discussed  in  another  place,  it  need  not  be  entered  on 
here.  • 

The  condition  of  savagism,  or  whatever  we  may  term  it, 
where  the  negro  is  isolated  and  without  any  thing  to  call  his 
wonderful  powers  of  imitation  into  action,  where  he  is  simply 
a  useless,  non-advancing  heathen,  surely  no  one,  however  per 
verted  his  mind  maybe  on  this  subject,  will  venture  to  say  is 
a  preferable  condition  to  that  which  he  enjoys  at  the  South. 
It  might  suffice  to  say  that  he  increases  with  more  than  double 
rapidity,  to  demonstrate  the  fiict  of  his  superiority  of  condi- 
tion in  the  latter ;  but  there  are  moral  considerations  that  show 
this  with  still  greater  distinctness.  It  is  true  that  we  must 
not  take  our  oavh  standard  to  test  this  matter,  or  we  must  not 
assume  that  that  which  would  constitute  our  own  happiness 
would  also  secure  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  negro.  Of 
course  the  white  man  never  did  and  never  could  live  such  a  life 
as  the  isolated  negro ;  but,  contemplating  the  negro  in  the 
South  as  he  now  exists,  in  comparison  with  the  condition  of 
the  isolated  negro  in  Africa,  will  any  one  or  can  any  one  doubt 
fur  an  instant  the  immense  superiority  of  the  former  condi- 
tion ?  He  is  cared  for  in  his  childhood  by  his  master  as  well 
as  his  mother,  taken  care  of  when  ill,  always  supplied  with  an 
abundance  of  food  and  clothing,  given  every  chance  for  the 
development  of  his   imitative  faculties,  permitted  to  marry 


196  N0BMAL    CONDITION    OF    THE    NEGBO. 

generally  as  he  pleases,  to  feel  always  that  he  has  a  guide  and 
protector,  and  a  constant,  peaceful  home ;  and  in  his  old  age  will 
be  cared  for  and  decently  buried  with  all  the  sanctions  and 
comforts  of  the  Christian  religion.  In  Africa,  a  negro,  isolated 
from  the  white  man,  rarely  has  a  home,  rarely  knows  his 
father,  is  left  unprotected  in  his  childhood  to  all  the  chances 
and  uncertainties  of  savagism,  sometimes  nearly  starved,  at 
other  times  gorged  with  unwholesome  food,  without  any  pos- 
sible chance  for  education  or  the  development  of  his  facul- 
ties, liable  at  any  moment  of  his  life,  in  some  wild  eruption 
of  hostile  tribes,  to  be  carried  oif  a  slave,  perhaps  to  be  eaten 
by  the  victors,  and  after  running  the  gauntlet  of  savagism,  if  he 
lives  to  old  age,  to  be  left  to  perish  of  hunger,  if  no  longer 
able  to  seek  food  for  himself.  But  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to 
multiply  words  on  this  point ;  the  condition  of  the  negro  in 
America,  under  the  broad  glare  of  American  civilization  and 
the  beneficent  influences  of  Christianity,  is  so  vastly  and  in- 
deed immeasurably  superior  to  that  of  the  African  or  isolated 
negro,  thafctsve  have  no  terms  in  our  language  that  can  truly 
or  fully  exfVss  it.  We  ourselves,  under  our  beneficent  demo- 
cratic institutions,  doubtless  enjoy  an  extent  of  happiness  or 
well-being,  over  that  of  the  masses  of  our  race  in  the  Old 
"World,  somewhat  difficult  to  measure  or  express  in  words,  and 
it  is  reasonable  to  say  that  the  negro  population  of  the  South, 
relatively  or  comparatively,  enjoy  even  greater  happiness,  when 
contrasted  with  African  savagism.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  other 
condition  to  compare  with,  for  freedom,  the  imaginary  state 
that  the  Abolitionists  have  labored  for  so  long,  is  not  a  condi- 
tion, and  has  an  existence  in  their  imaginations  alone,  and  not 
in  the  actual  breathing  and  living  world  about  us.  They  have  a 
theory,  or  rather  an  abstract  idea,  that  the  negro  is  a  black-white 
man,  a  black  Caucasian,  a  creature  like  ourselves  except  in 
color,  and  therefore  that,  placed  under  the  same  circumstances — ■ 


NORMAL    CONDITION     OF    THE    NEGRO.  197 

that  is,  given  the  same  rights  and  held  to  the  same  responsi- 
bilities— he  will  manifest  the  same  qualities,  etc.  On  this 
foolish- assumption  legislatures  and  individuals  have  acted, 
and  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North  considerable  num- 
bers of  these  people  have  been  thrust  from  their  normal  condi- 
tion into  what  ?  Why,  into  the  condition  of  widely  different 
beings. 

If  any  one  were  to  propose  to  give  the  negro  straight  hair, 
or  a  flowing  beard,  or  transparent  color,  or  to  force  on  him 
any  other  physical  feature  of  the  white  man,  everybody  would 
denounce  the  wrong  as  well  as  the  folly  of  thus  torturing  the 
poor  creature  with  that  which  nature  forbids  to  be  done.  It 
has  been  shown  that,  in  the  mental  qualities  and  instincts  of 
the  negro,  the  differences  between  him  and  the  white  man  are 
exactly  measured  by  the  differences  in  the  physical  qualities, 
and  therefore  the  efforts  of  the  Abolitionists  to  endow  the 
negro  with  freedom  involve  exactly  the  same  impieties  and 
the  same  follies  as  if  they  sought  to  change  the  color  of  the 
skin.  Or  if  it  was  sought  to  forces  the  child  to  live  out  the 
life  of  the  adult — or  the  woman  that  of  the  man,  or  to  compel 
our  domestic  animals  to  change  their  manifestations  and  to 
contradict  the  nature  God  has  given  them,  it  would  be 
promptly  denounced  as  cruel,  impious,  and  foolish.  All  that 
could  be  done  would  be  to  destroy  them — to  shorten  the  life 
of  the  unhappy  creatures  ;  and  this  is  exactly  what  has  been 
done,  and  is  now  done,  in  regard  to  negroes ;  but,  owing  to  a 
universal  ignorance  and  wide-spread  misconception,  that  which 
should  be  denounced  as  the  grossest  wrong  has  been  regarded 
as  the  highest  morality  and  philanthropy ! 

The  negro  is  thrust  from  the  care  and  protection  of  a  mas- 
ter at  the  South,  but  he  has  none  of  the  responsibilities  of 
society  laid  on  him,  and  furthermore,  there  is  no  very  pressing 
competition  for  the  means  of  subsistence.     He  has  nothing  of 


198  NORMAL     CONDITION     OF    THE     NEGRO. 

what  are  called  rights — that  is,  is  not  forced  to  live  the  life  of 
another  being — and  though  he  has  no  master  to  teach  and 
guide  him,  his  powers  of  imitation  are,  to  a  certain  extent, 
called  into  action,  for  he  is  still  in  juxtaposition  and  subordina- 
tion. But  even  under  these  favorable  circumstances,  he  rapidly — 
as  contrasted  with  those  under  the  care  of  masters — declines  and 
dies.  There  is,  at  this  time,  a  large  number  of  these  people 
in  Maryland,  Virginia  and  other  transition  States.  Their  con- 
dition is  truly  deplorable,  and  is  every  day  getting  worse,  for 
the  increase  of  whites  is  every  day  adding  to  the  pressure  on 
them,  and  rendering  the  means  of  subsistence  more  difficult  to 
obtain.  It  seems  to  many,  doubtless,  a  great  wrong  to  place 
them  again  in  a  normal  condition,  and  true  relation  to  the 
whites — which  Avould  be  a  wrong  like  that  of  the  inebriate 
forced  back  into  temperance — a  process,  in  truth,  of  great  suf- 
fering, but  desirable  in  the  end.  If  the  abnormal  habit  of 
drunkenness  continues,  the  man  will  die  within  a  given  time ; 
but  if  he  reforms  and  recovers  his  normal  state,  he  may  live 
many  years. 

There  will  be  few,  if  any, more  negroes  "emancipated,"  as 
forcing  them  out  of  a  normal  condition  has  been  termed,  in  the 
South,  and  therefore  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  these 
people,  left  as  they  are  now,  will  become  extinct.  As  a  ques- 
tion of  kindness  and  humanity,  therefore,  it  is  like  that  of  the 
drunkard  :  left  as  they  are,  they  must  perish ;  but  if  restored 
to  a  normal  state,  whatever  their  temporary  suffering,  they  or 
their  descendants  may  live  forever.  Most  unfortunately,  how- 
ever, there  is  another  difficulty  involved  in  the  fortunes  of 
these  poor  people.  They  have  a  large  infusion  of  white  blood 
— a  very  large  portion,  perhaps,  are  mulattoes,  and  therefore 
while  in  the  case  of  the  typical  negro  there  could  be  no  doubt 
where  true  humanity  pointed  us,  in  the  case  of  these  mongrels 
there  is  room  for  doubt   and   difficulty.     But   in   the   more 


NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGRO.  10fl 

Northern  States,  where  it  is  sought  to  force  the  habitudes  of 
white  men  on  them,  they  perish  rapidly.  The  mortality  is 
greater  in  New  England  than  in  the  Middle  States,  and  great- 
est of  all  in  Massachusetts  where  they  are  citizens,  and  the 
ignorant  and  misguided,  however  well-meaning,  "  fiends  of 
freedom"  have  their  own  way,  and  give  full  scope  to  their  ter- 
rible kindness.  The  whole  subject  may  be  summed  up  thus  :— 
The  negro,  in  a  normal  condition,  increases  more  rapidly  than 
the  whites — for  the  negress,  if  not  more  prolific,  escapes  by  her 
lower  sensibility  the  numerous  chances  of  miscarriage,  prema- 
ture births,  weakly  children,  etc.,  which  ordinarily  attend  on 
the  higher  and  more  susceptible  organization  of  the  white  fe- 
male. 

The  "  free"  or  abnormal  negro  of  the  Southern  States  tends  to 
extinction — of  the  Middle  States  still  more  rapidly — and  finally, 
most  rapidly  of  all  in  New  England.  Or  the  actual  laws  gov- 
erning this  matter  may  may  be  summed  up  thus : — In  precise 
proportion  as  the  negro  is  thrust  from  his  normal  condition 
into  that  of  the  white  man,  he  tends  to  extinction,  or  one 
might  say,  that  precisely  as  the  rights  of  the  white  man  are 
forced  on  the  negro,  he  is  destroyed.  All  the  negroes  brought 
to  this  continent  were  in  a  normal  condition.  The  monstrous 
assumption  set  up  by  British  writers  when  the  colonists  began 
to  throw  off  the  British  dominion,  that  negroes  were  black- 
white  men,  and,  naturally  considered,  entitled  to  the  same 
status,  after  nearly  a  hundred  years,  and  an  amount  of  wrong, 
falsehood,  and  suffering  to  these  people  that  is  beyond  com- 
putation, has  at  last  culminated.  From  this  time  forth,  few, 
if  any,  will  be  "  emancipated."  Indeed,  it  is  far  more  likely  that 
the  numbers  restored  to  a  normal  condition  will  outnumber 
those  thrust  from  their  natural  relations  to  white  men.  If  all 
the  legislation  on  the  subject  were  suddenly  blotted  out,  of 
course  there  would  be  no  such  thing  as  a  "  free  negro"  on  this 


200  NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGEO. 

continent,  and  this  is  the  point  towards  which  the  course 
of  American  society  is  now  rapidly  tending.  It  may  be 
somewhat  difficult  to  determine  that  period — for  we  know  not 
what  may  be  the  action  of  many  of  the  States  that  have  a  con- 
siderable population  of  this  kind — but  one  can  not  err  when 
saying  that  it  can  not  be  remote,  and  it  is  absolutely  certain 
to  arrive  within  the  next  hundred  years.  Indeed,  it  is  most 
probable  that  from  the  culmination  of  the  great  "  anti-slavery" 
imposture,  or  from  the  starting-point  of  the  reaction,  to  the 
final  period  when  such  a  social  monstrosity  as  a  "  free"  negro 
will  be  entirely  extinct  in  the  New  World,  the  interval  will 
be  less  than  that  of  the  strange  and  wide-spread  delusion 
which  has  so  long  run  riot  over  the  understanding,  the  com- 
mon sense,  the  interests,  and  self-respect  of  our  people. 

Of  course,  no  comparison  proper  can  be  made  with  so  shad- 
owy and  intangible  a  thing  as  this.  It  is  not  a  condition — 
it  is  only  an  attempt  after  that  which  neither  has  nor  can  have 
an  existence.  If  it  had  been  assumed  simply  that  the  status 
of  the  negro  was  wrong  at  the  South,  and  that  some  other 
status  was  proper  for  him,  then  possibly  an  experiment  would 
have  been  legitimate.  But,  as  it  was  assumed  that  the  negro  was 
a  Caucasian,  whose  color  merely  was  different,  and  naturally 
entitled  to  the  position  of  the  white  man,  all  these  efforts  were 
made  to  reduce  the  assumption  to  practice,  and  compel  him  to 
live  out  the  life  of  the  former.  There  could  be  and  can  be 
only  a  single  end  to  such  effort.  God  created  him  a  negro,  a 
different  and  inferior  being,  and  of  course  no  human  power 
could  alter  or  modify,  to  the  millionth  part  of  an  atom,  the 
work  of  the  Eternal.  That  which  destroys  a  creature,  or  under 
which  he  dies,  can  never  be  right,  or  even  approach  to  that 
which  is  right.  When  nature  is  so  outraged  that  she  refuses 
to  indorse  the  human  action,  or  when  she  in  mercy  interposes 
her  power  to  limit  such  action,  then  we  can  not  possibly  mis« 


NORMAL     CONDITION     OF     THE     NEGRO.  201 

take  the  wrong  we  are  doing,  or  attempting  to  do.  It  is  an 
historical  fact  that  slaves  never  propagated  while  in  that  con- 
dition, and  the  supply  was  constantly  kept  up  by  fresh  wars 
and  increased  captives.  It  was  such  a  stupendous  outrage  on 
the  natural  relations,  that  men  of  the  same  species  bear  to  each 
other,  or  on  that  natural  and  unchangeable  equality  common 
to  the  race,  that  nature  refused  to  propagate  it,  or  to  consent 
to  its  permanent  existence.  Nature  also  refuses  offspring  to 
prostitution — that  terrible  cancer  so  corrupting  to  Northern 
society,  and  who  does  not  see  her  wisdom  and  beneficence  in 
thus  refusing  a  permanent  existence  to  so  foul  a  blot  on  the 
sexual  relations  ?  So,  too,  in  the  case  of  mulattoism,  where 
a  monstrous  violation  of  the  physical  integrity  of  the  races 
is  involved,  nature  interposes  and  forbids  it  to  live.  And 
in  incest — the  violation  of  the  laws  of  consanguinity,  where 
relatives  intermarry — nature  appropriately  punishes  them, 
through  the  idiocy  and  impotency  of  their  offspring,  which  is 
always  forbidden  to  exist  beyond  a  determinate  period.  Free 
negroism,  therefore — the  attempt  to  force  a  different  and  in- 
ferior being  to  live  out  the  life  of  a  different  and  superior 
being — is  not  a  condition,  and  can  not  be  compared  with  that 
which  is,  or  that  which  the  higher  law  of  nature  grants,  a 
fixed  order  of  life.  There  are,  then,  only  two  possible  condi- 
tions for  the  negro — isolation  or  juxtaposition  with  the  white 
man — African  heathenism  or  subordiuation  to  a  master — a 
blank  in  the  economy  of  the  universe,  or  the  social  order  of  the 
South,  where  he  is  an  important  element  in  the  civilization, 
progress,  and  general  welfare  of  both  races.  It  is  not  in  the 
scope  of  this  work  to  treat  of  the  natural  relations  or  social 
adaptations  of  other  races.  They  must  be  determined  by  experi- 
ence, though  the  starting  point — the  fundamental  truth — that 
when  in  juxtaposition  they  must  occupy  a  subordinate  social 
position,  corresponding  with  the  degree  of  inferiority  to  the 

9* 


202  NORMAL     CONDITION     OF    TIIE    NEGRO. 

white  man,  may  be  said  to  be  self-evident,  or,  at  all  events,  an 
unavoidable  truth. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  well  to  repeat  the  great  leading 
truths  that  underlie  the  subject  discussed  in  this  chapter. 

All  of  God's  creatures,  animal  as  well  as  human,  have  a 
right  to  live  out  the  life — the  specific  nature — that  He  has  en- 
dowed them  with,  and  we  have  comprehended  this  great,  vital, 
and  fundamental  law  in  respect  to  our  domestic  animals,  and 
generally  conform  to  it.  The  natural  relations  of  the  sexes — 
of  parents  and  offspring — are  also  understood,  and  generally 
lived  up  to  in  our  daily  life.  The  natural  relations  of  men  to 
each  other  are  less  understood,  but  the  natural  order,  the 
equality  of  rights,  and  equality  of  duties,  based  on  an  equality 
of  wants,  is  a  vital  principle  of  Christianity,  and  however  far 
we  may  be  from  living  it  out  in  practice,  our  political  system, 
and  the  whole  superstructure  of  our  civil  and  legal  institutions, 
repose  upon  this  fundamental  law  of  nature. 

This  natural  order  is  generally  disregarded  in  the  Old 
World,  though  even  there,  with  all  their  numerous  false  tra- 
ditions, relics  of  barbarism,  and  ancient  wrongs,  as  well  as 
modern  corruptions,  they  are  forced,  to  a  certain  extent,  in 
their  legal  and  civil  institutions,  to  recognize  it.  Nature  abso- 
lutely forbids  any  change  or  any  violation  of  her  laws,  or,  in 
other  words,  the  work  of  the  Almighty  can  not  be  altered  by 
human  force  or  accident.  The  millions  of  Europe  are,  there- 
fore, unchanged  in  their  essential  natures,  and  the  few  who 
rule  and  wrong  them  are  only  able  to  prevent  the  development 
of  their  specific  and  latent  capabilities  by  their  systems  of  re- 
pression. But  the  natural  order — the  natural  relations  they 
bear  to  each  other — the  inherent  and  eternal  equality  that  God 
has  stamped  forever  on  the  organism  of  the  race,  is  perpetually 
struggling  to  manifest  itself ;  and  though  buried  in  a  profound 
animalism,  though  deluded  by  false  theories  and  corrupted  by 


NORMAL    CONDITION    OF    THE    NEGRO.  203 

innumerable  lies,  and  steeped  in  poverty  and  misery  fathomless 
and  measureless,  they  are  only  temporarily  kept  from  asserting 
the  natural  order  and  specific  nature  of  the  race  by  four  mil- 
lions of  bayonets. 

The  natural  relations  of  races,  and  especially  of  the  white 
man  and  negro,  have  been  wholly  misunderstood,  for,  ignorant 
of  the  nature  and  specific  wants  of  the  negro,  it  necessarily  fol- 
lowed that  it  should  be  so.  But  while  in  theory  we  have  been 
ignorant  of  these  relations,  the  people  of  the  South  have  solved 
them  in  practice.  Their  actual  experience  of  the  negro  nature, 
of  its  wants,  its  capacities,  its  industrial  adaptations,  perhaps 
we  may  say,  the  instinctive  necessities  of  a  society  where 
widely  different  social  elements  are  in  juxtaposition,  have  de- 
veloped a  social  order  in  practical  harmony  with  the  best  inter- 
ests and  highest  happiness  of  both  races.  That  society  rests 
on  the  same  basis  as  that  of  the  North,  with  the  superadded 
negro  element,  which,  in  social  subordination  corresponding 
with  its  natural  inferiority  and  natural  relations  to  the  white 
man,  is  immovable  and  everlasting,  so  long  as  the  foundations 
of  the  world  remain  unaltered  and  unalterable.  Ignorance 
and  impiety  may  beat  against  it ;  folly,  delusion,  and  madness 
may  waste  their  wild  energies  in  blind  warfare  on  it ;  European 
kings  and  nobles,  all  those  who  live  and  flourish  for  a  time  on 
the  perversion  of  the  natural  order  and  the  degradation  of  so 
many  millions  of  their  kind — their  natural  equals — may  com- 
bine to  overthrow  it ;  dupes,  instruments,  open  foes  and  secre 
traitors  may  aid  them,  and  the  great  ignorant  and  deluded 
masses  for  a  time  may  be  blindly  impelled  in  this  direction, 
but  all  in  vain  ;  the  social  order — the  supremacy  of  the  master 
and  the  obedience  of  the  "  slave" — will  remain  forever,  for  it 
is  based  on  the  higher  law  of  the  Almighty,  the  natural  rela- 
tions of  the  races,  the  organic  and  eternal  superiority  of  the 
white  man  and  the  organic  and  everlasting  inferiority  of  tha 
negro. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

CHATTELISM. 

The  common  European  notion  (and  the  American,  borrowed 
from  it),  regards  the  American  "slave"  as  a  chattel — a  thing 
Bold  like  a  horse  or  dog,  and  equally  the  absolute  property  of 
his  master.  Lord  Brougham  and  others  have  denounced  this 
barbarism,  as  they  have  called  it,  with  great  bitterness,  and 
the  former  has  declared  that  it  is  immoral,  abhorrent,  and  even 
illegal  "  for  man  to  hold  property  in  man" — a  declaration  that 
might  be  true  enough,  perhaps,  if  negroes  were  black-while 
men,  as  supposed,  but  which,  in  view  of  the  actual  facts  in- 
volved, is  simply  absurd.  They  suppose  that  negroes  in 
America  are  held  by  the  same  tenure  that  the  Romans  and 
other  nations  of  antiquity  held  their  slaves.  But  there  is  no 
resemblance  whatever,  and,  in  truth,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  anywhere  in  history  conditions  so  absolutely  and  so  widely 
different.  All  the  so-called  heathen  nations  had  slaves,  or 
rather  they  had  captives  taken  in  war,  whose  fives  were  for- 
feited, and  who  thus  became  the  property  of  their  conquerors. 
The  rule  or  custom  seems  to  have  been  universal,  and  it  was 
only  after  the  introduction  of  Christianity  that  it  became  obso- 
lete. A  Roman  army  invaded  Gaul  or  Germany — a  great 
battle  or  series  of  battles  occurred — those  captured  on  the 
field  became  the  property  of  the  victors,  while  the  nation  or 
country  became  a  Roman  province,  and  ever  after  paid  tribute 
to  the  Roman  civil  officers.  Gaul,  Britain,  most  of  Germany, 
indeed,  nearly  all  the   then  known  world,  were  thus  overrun 


CHATTELISM.  205 

by  the  "Roman  armies,  and  the  vast  multitudes  that  were  do- 
feated  in  battle  were  carried  off  to  Italy  to  cultivate  the  lands 
of  the  Roman  nobility.  There  was  no  question  of  freedom  or 
slavery,  or  of  rights  of  any  kind  involved — the  man  risked  his 
life,  and  if  defeated,  this  life  was  forfeited  to  the  victor.  The 
latter  might  or  might  not  slay  him  the  next  morning,  or  the 
next  week,  or  the  next  year,  or  twenty  years  after,  just  as  ho 
pleased.  He  might  send  him  to  work  on  his  lands  in  Italy, 
keep  him  as  a  domestic  in  his  household,  compel  him  to  enter 
the  arena  and  combat  as  a  gladiator  for  the  popular  amuse- 
ment,  or  direct  him  to  be  crucified  or  given  to  feed  his  fishes,  or 
he  might  sell  him  to  others,  who,  of  course,  had  the  same  control 
over  him ;  or,  finally,  by  one  supreme  act  of  generosity,  he  might 
give  him  back  his  forfeited  fife,  when,  as  a  freedman — not 
freeman — he  entered  the  ranks  of  ordinary  citizenship  and  was 
lost  in  the  mighty  mass  of  Romans  that  made  up  the  popula- 
tion of  the  great  city.  Freedom  or  slavery,  or  what,  in  mod. 
em  times,  is  called  such,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter. 
It  was  a  question  of  life  and  death  rather  than  of  freedom  and 
slavery.  The  life,  the  actual  physical  existence  was  forfeited 
— the  man  had  no  right  to  five,  and  only  did  live  by  the  suffer- 
ance of  the  captor  or  master,  and  therefore  all  subordinate 
considerations  were  lost  in  this  one  great,  all- dominating  fact. 
Many  wise,  learned,  and  accomplished  men  were  slaves  or 
were  of  this  unfortunate  class,  and  remained  thus  through  life, 
subject  often,  doubtless,  to  the  caprices  and  cruelty  of  illiter- 
ate and  brutal  owners,  who  at  any  moment  could  put  them  to 
the  torture  or  to  a  cruel  death.  The  rule  was  universal  among 
all  the  ancient  nations,  except  the  Hebrews,  who,  in  some  re- 
spects, or  as  regarded  their  own  people,  made  some  humane 
modifications.  It  was  entirely  personal — the  state  or  govern- 
ment having  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter  either  as  regarded 
the  original   forfeit  or   the  cancelling  of  the  bonds  and  the 


20(J  CHATTELISM. 

restoration  to  liberty,  or  rather  to  life,  of  the  unfortunate  cap- 
tive. 

There  was  a  certain  social  prejudice  in  respect  to  freedmen, 
or  the  children  of  those  who  had  been  slaves,  but  there  doe3 
not  appear  to  have  been  any  legal  or  political  disability.  They 
had  forfeited  their  lives — they  became  absolutely  dead  in  law, 
mere  things,  chattels,  or  property  of  their  owners,  of  which 
the  government  or  state  took  no  hiore  account  than  of  horses 
or  oxen,  or  any  other  property ;  but  the  moment  that  their 
lives  were  restored  to  them,  then  they  at  once  entered  the 
ranks  of  citizenship  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges  common 
in  those  days,  and  in  those  relatively  barbarous  times. 

There  were  some  incidental  features  or  phases  of  this  terri- 
ble condition  that  are  too  marked  to  pass  over  without  notice, 
as  they  tend  to  show,  in  a  veiy  striking  manner,  the  wide  and 
iudeed  unapproachable  distance  between  it  and  that  which,  in 
our  own  times,  has  been  so  generally  confounded  wit.i  it. 
Servile  wars  were  almost  constantly  occurring  events.  Opin 
ion,  even  in  the  rudest  times,  has  always,  to  a  certain  extent, 
governed  the  world,  and  the  universal  custom  of  enslaving 
those  defeated  in  battle  was  submitted  to  in  the  first  instance 
without  a  murmur.  It  was  the  fortune  of  war,  and  no  one  dis- 
puted the  inexorable  rule  which  doomed  them  to  become  the 
absolute  chattels  or  property  of  the  victor ;  but  when  their 
numbers  increased  to  any  considerable  extent  in  any  locality, 
the  natural  instinct  which  told  them  they  were  the  equals,  and 
very  often  the  superiors  of  those  who  owned  them,  could  not 
be  restrained,  and  the  long  and  terrible  servile  wars  almost 
always  raging  within  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Empire  prob- 
ably weakened  and  more  than  any  other  thing  prepared  it  for 
that  awful  overthrow  which  finally  overtook  the  Roman 
colossus.  Another  equally  striking  feature  distinguished  this 
condition.     The  slave  population  never  increased  itself  in  the 


CHATTELISM.  207 

regular  and  natural  order.  Most  of  them  were  adult  males, 
originally,  and  the  small  number  of  females  may  sufficiently 
account  for  the  constant  tendency  to  extinction ;  but  beyond 
this,  the  abnormal  condition,  the  terrible  and  transcendent 
wrong  of  forcing  beings  like  themselves,  with  the  same  wants 
and  the  same  instincts  as  their  masters,  to  lives  in  absolute 
and  abject  subjection  to  the  wills  of  others,  was  necessarily 
incompatible  with  a  permanent  existence. 

This  universal  custom  prevailed — all  men,  even  the  wisest 
and  best,  in  their  profound  ignorance  of  their  oAvn  nature,  be- 
lieved slavery  to  be  right,  just  as  many  good  men  in  our  own 
times  believe  that  the  European  condition,  which  dooms  the 
millions  to  subjection  to  the  few,  is  right ;  but  it  was  so  utterly 
in  conflict  with  natural  instinct  that  the  servile  population 
tended  constantly  to  extinction,  and  therefore,  as  observed,  it 
soon  died  out  when  the  spirit  of  Christianity  modified  the  cus- 
toms of  war,  and  the  conquered  became  prisoners  to  be  ex- 
changed, instead  of  slaves  subject  to  the  caprices  and  cruelties 
of  creatures  like  themselves.  Some  superficial  writers,  igno- 
rant of  the  underlying  facts,  have  supposed  that  Greece  and 
Rome  were  great  and  prosperous  because  they  had  slaves,  a 
process  of  reasoning  quite  equal  to  saying  that  a  man  enjoyed 
good  health  because  he  had  a  fever-sore  on  one  of  his  legs  I 
These  nations  and  all  other  nations  have  been  prosperous  and 
powerful  in  precise  proportion  to  the  number  of  free  men,  and 
weak  and  contemptible  in  exact  proportion  to  the  multiplicity 
of  slaves — a  truth  as  evident  at  this  day  as  in  any  other,  and 
rendered  more  palpable  in  our  own  history  and  condition  than 
ever  before.  Greece  and  Rome  were  great  and  powerful,  in  con- 
trast with  the  great  Oriental  empires — Persian,  Babylonian, 
Egyptian,  etc. — because  there  was  a  large  free  population  in 
the  former,  while  in  the  latter  they  were  all  slaves,  or  the 
slaves  of  slaves.     Of  course  no  such  condition  oould  exist  in 


208  CHATTELISM. 

our  times,  and  the  most  ignorant  and  abject  portion  of  the 
European  population  could  not  be  placed  or  kept  in  such  posi- 
tion a  single  hour.  The  Oriental  populations  still  practice  it, 
to  a  certain  extent,  perhaps.  The  Turks,  when  they  invaded 
the  lower  empire  and  captured  Constantinople,  made  slaves 
of  their  prisoners,  and  long  trains  of  unhappy  beings,  wealthy 
matrons  and  delicately  nurtured  young  girls,  chained  by  the 
wrists  to  their  own  servants,  or  to  rude  soldiers  and  uncouth 
peasants,  were  marched  off  to  become  the  abject  and  miserable 
slaves  of  still  more  gross  and  brutal  masters.  The  sale  of  Cir- 
cassian girls  for  Turkish  harems  is  altogether  a  different  affair, 
and  however  revolting  to  our  notions  and  habits,  has  nothing 
in  common  with  the  condition  historically  known  to  us  as 
slavery.  The  essential  fact  in  this  condition,  as  will  be  seen, 
was  the  forfeited  life ;  all  other  facts  hinged  on  that,  and  the  idea 
of  property  or  chattelism  was  incidental — a  mere  result.  When 
the  man's  life  was  forfeited,  when  he  was  deemed  to  be  dead 
in  law,  when  his  captor  could  do  as  he  pleased  with  him, 
crucify,  torture,  or  destroy  him  altogether,  then  it  necessarily 
followed  that  he  was  a  chattel,  or  a  thing  that  he  would  be 
apt  to  make  as  profitable  as  possible,  and  this  self-interest  was 
the  sole  protection  of  the  miserable  creature.  It  therefore 
was,  doubtless,  a  great  interest — some  of  the  Roman  nobles 
owning  many  thousands  of  them,  though,  except  in  respect  to 
the  servile  wars,  almost  constantly  raging  within  some  portion 
of  the  empire,  the  government  seems  to  have  had  nothing  to 
do  with  slaves  or  slavery.  It  was  wont,  however,  to  resort  to 
terrible  punishments  to  keep  them  in  subjection,  and  it  was 
not  uncommon  to  line  the  highways  leading  into  the  city  for 
forty  miles  with  crosses,  on  which  these  wretched  beings  were 
suspended,  and  left  in  sight  and  hearing  of  each  other,  until 
death  relieved  them  from  their  sufferings. 

Such  was  Roman  slavery,  as  it  has  been  described  by  hi9- 


OHATTELISM.  209 

torians  of  the  time — a  condition  not  at  all  involving  what  wo 
call  freedom  or  rights  of  any  kind,  but  simply  thit  of  a  for- 
feited existence,  and  which,  if  given  back  by  the  owner,  the 
man  was  restored  to  life,  to  a  legal  existence,  to  his  normal 
condition,  and,  without  the  slightest  interference  of  the  govern- 
ment, was  at  once  absorbed  in  the  general  citizenship.  Of 
course  there  is  no  resemblance  or  even  approximation  to  the 
social  order  of  the  South  ;  indeed,  as  observed,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive  of  conditions  more  utterly  opposed  or  unlike  each 
other.  As  has  been  shown  elsewhere,  the  labor,  the  service, 
the  industrial  forces  of  the  negro  were  essential  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  and  the  growth  of  the  indigenous  products  that 
belong  to  the  great  intertropical  regions  of  the  American  con- 
tinent. Ships,  therefore,  were  fitted  out  for  this  purpose  to 
bring  negroes  to  the  New  World,  not  to  make  slaves  of  them, 
or  to  transform  them  into  things,  but  to  make  their  labor 
available  for  the  common  good  of  mankind.  Much  wrong, 
cruelty,  and  inhumanity,  it  is  quite  likely,  have  been  practiced, 
but  the  motive  and  the  object  were  right,  of  course,  for  these 
had  their  origin  in  human  necessities  and  human  welfare.  The 
abuses  we  have  nothing  more  to  do  with ;  the  object  and  tho 
essential  fact — the  service — remains,  and  will  remain  forever, 
if  the  great  tropical  centre  of  the  continent  remains  civilized, 
instead  of  being  transformed  into  a  barren  waste.  The  service 
of  the  negro,  his  industrial  capacity,  his  labor,  is  a  thing  that 
may  be  estimated  as  easily  and  accurately  as  any  other  species 
of  property,  and  therefore  is  property,  and  to  the  precise  ex- 
tent necessary  to  enforce  this  labor  or  this  service  the  owner 
of  it  has  absolute  control  over  the  person  of  the  negro.  There 
is  not,  nor  should  there  be,  any  difference  between  this  pro- 
pei'ty  and  other  property,  and  to  this  extent  it  may  be  called 
chattelism,  for,  as  observed,  it  may  be  as  easily  and  precisely 
fixed  or  defined  as  any  other  property.     The  master  takes  care 


210  CHATTELISM. 

of  him  in  childhood  and  in  sickness,  clothes,  feeds,  and  provides 
for  his  old  age,  or  for  the  loss  of  health,  etc.,  and  estimating  or 
comparing  these  things  with  his  services,  he  is  able  to  fix  a 
positive  value  to  the  labor  of  the  negro,  and  this,  like  any  other 
property,  he  may  dispose  of  to  any  one  else,  if  he  chooses  to 
do  so.  This  property  he  must  have  absolute  control  over,  an  d 
therefore,  to  the  precise  extent  needed  to  make  it  available, 
he  has  absolute  control  over  the  person  of  the  negro.  The 
ignorant  abolition  writer  says,  "the  slave  is  put  upon  the 
auction-block,  examined  and  handled  precisely  as  the  horse,  or 
other  animal,  and  knocked  off  to  the  highest  bidder ;  he  fol- 
lows his  master  home,  to  be  dealt  with  just  as  any  other 
animal." 

It  is  true,  there  is  a  seeming  resemblance,  but  if  we  follow 
them  home  and  observe  what  follows,  then  it  will  be  seen  that 
there  is  no  resemblance  at  all.  The  master  takes  care  of  his 
horse,  for  such  is  his  interest ;  he  may  even  have  a  liking,  a 
kind  of  affection  for  him  ;  but  if  sick  or  worn  out,  or  if  he  falls 
and  breaks  a  leg,  he  blows  his  brains  out,  and  after  taking  off 
his  skin,  leaves  the  carcass  to  be  devoured  by  the  dogs  or  vul- 
tures. In  the  case  of  the  negro  he  also  takes  care  of  him  and 
treats  him  well,  for  it  is  his  highest  interest  to  do  so,  and  often 
feels  an  affection,  and  a  very  strong  one,  for  him.  If  ill,  he 
sends  for  a  surgeon  and  treats  him  as  men  usually  treat  their 
children.  He  is  a  part  of  the  household,  belongs  to  the  family, 
and  is  usually  strongly  attached  to  the  master  and  the  master's 
children.  His  own  wants  are  all  attended  to.  He  has  his 
cabin,  his  patch  of  garden,  his  poultry,  etc.,  very  often  his  bale 
of  cotton.  He  is  permitted  to  choose  his  own  wife,  to  enjoy 
nil  the  domestic  happiness  that  his  nature  is  capable  of,  and  if 
he  fulfils  his  duty  industriously,  promptly,  and  honestly,  then 
the  master  may  be  said  to  have  no  moie  control  over  him ;  but 
should  he  reach  old  age,  break  his  leg,  or  in  any  way  become 


CHATTELISM.  211 

disabled  and  useless,  if  the  master  should  blow  his  brains  out 
be  would  be  hanged  as  a  murderer.  There  is  surely  no  resem- 
blance in  these  things,  none  whatever ;  indeed  it  may  be  said 
that  the  one  essential  fact  accomplished,  the  "  service"  duly 
rendered,  the  master's  absolute  control  ceases.  He  must  still 
care  for  and  protect  the  negro  and  provide  for  him  in  sickness 
and  old  age,  but  his  absolute  rule  is  always  within  well-defined 
limits,  and  beyond  them  the  master  may  not  go.  He  may 
enforce  service,  and  if  the  negro  disobeys,  punish  him,  or  if  he 
resists  the  reasonable  will  of  the  master,  compel  obedience — ■ 
absolute,  unquestioning  obedience.  But  the  laws  of  every 
/Southern  State  protect  the  "  slave"  from  the  caprices  and  cruel- 
ties of  the  master  just  as  in  the  Northern  States  they  protect 
the  child  from  a  sometimes  passionate  and  brutal  father. 

In  the  previous  chapter  it  has  been  shown  that  the  negro  is 
in  his  normal  condition  only  when  in  social  subordination  to 
the  white  man — for  that  is  the  natural  relation  of  the  races 
whenever  or  wherever  they  are  in  juxtaposition;  but  the  precise 
form  of  this  subordination  may  be  modified,  perhaps,  by  time 
and  circumstances.  Subordination  and  protection  exist  to- 
gether— indeed,  are  inseparable.  The  strong  should  protect 
the  weak :  the  superior  white  man,  who  demands  the  obedi- 
ence of  the  inferior  negro,  should  also  protect  this  feebler  being; 
and  such  is  the  social  condition  at  the  South.  Owning  the 
the  service  of  the  negro,  it  is  the  highest  interest  of  the  mas- 
ter to  take  the  utmost  care  of  him,  while  the  latter  has  an 
equal  interest — relatively  considered — in  being  honest,  indus- 
trious, and  faithful  to  the  master.  Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to 
perceive  any  antagonism  of  interests  in  this  condition,  and  com- 
pared with  any  other,  it  may  be  said,  without  chance  of  suc- 
cessful contradiction,  that  it  is  the  most  harmonious  in  its 
essential  principles  known  to  our  times.  It  originated  in  an 
absolute  want — the  service  of  the  negro —  that  industrial  capac- 


212  CHATTELISM. 

ity  which  he  alone  can  furnish,  and  this  service  is  the  essential 
feature  of  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South.  It  was  and 
is  made  a  property  that  may  be  sold  or  exchanged  as  promptly 
as  any  other  property,  and  the  person  of  the  negro  is  subject 
to  the  absolute  control  of  the  master  to  an  extent  necessary  to 
enforce  this  power,  but  no  further.  There  is  still  a  large  mar- 
gin for  self-control,  for  all  the  self-government  that  nature  de- 
mands, for  the  gratification  of  all  his  wants  and  the  full  de- 
velopment of  all  his  faculties.  This  is  demonstrated  beyond 
doubt,  for  he  rapidly  multiplies,  while  if  he  were  denied  the 
rights  that  nature  accords  him,  his  instincts  repressed,  his 
wants  forbidden  gratification,  like  the  Roman  slave,  or  like  the 
so-called  free  negro  of  the  North,  he  would  become  languid 
and  diseased,  and  tend  rapidly  to  extinction.  But  while  the 
existing  condition  is  thus  healthy,  natural,  and  just,  as  before 
remarked,  it  is  quite  likely  that,  in  the  future  time,  it  may  be 
widely  changed  in  its  details.  This  relation — the  subordina- 
tion with  the  inseparable  protection — can  never  be  changed 
without  destruction  to  both,  or  without  social  suicide;  but 
the  social  condition  may  some  day  be  modified  sufficiently, 
perhaps,  to  do  away  with  any  defects,  if  such  exist  at 
present. 

In  another  place  the  subject  of  climate  and  industrial  adap- 
tation is  fully  considered,  and  it  will  suffice  to  remark  in  this 
place  that  the  tropics  are  the  natural  centre  of  existence  of  the 
negro,  and  some  day  not  very  remote  our  negro  population, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  perhaps,  will  be  found  within  the  inter- 
tropical region.  And  when  that  day  comes,  it  is  quite  likely 
that  some  modification  will  be  worked  out  which,  while  the 
essential  principles  of  the  existing  condition  are  preserved, 
chattelism,  or  that  seeming  personal  property  in  the  negro  now 
so  extensively  associated  in  the  popular  mind  at  the  North  as 
wrong,  may  disappear  altogether.    We  are  only  just  emerging, 


CUATTELISM.  213 

as  it  were,  into  a  boundless  field  for  progress,  for  inquiry,  for 
experiment,  for  social  development,  for  working  out  the  great 
problem  of  humanity.  All  Europe  is  in  utter  ignorance  and 
blindness ;  and  if  the  whole  political  and  social  order  is  not 
in  conflict  with  the  natural  order,  the  latter,  is,  at  all  events, 
repressed,  and  forbidden  a  development.  We,  ourselves,  have 
reached  a  comparatively  far  advanced  position — the  grand 
position  and  declaration  of  the  men  of  1776,  that  all  men  (of 
course  of  our  own  race)  are  created  equal,  and  designed  by  the 
Almighty  for  the  same  liberty,  etc. ;  and  we  have  based  our  polit- 
ical order  on  this  fundamental  and  everlasting  truth ;  but  while 
in  theory  we  have  thus  recognized  the  relations  that  nature 
has  decreed  between  individuals,  in  practice  we  have  made  but 
little  advance  over  the  people  of  Europe. 

Our  cities  and  towns  are  filled  to  overflowing  with  poverty, 
ignorance,  vice,  and  misery,  and  though  much  of  this  is  the 
direct  result  of  the  wrongs  and  oppressions  of  the  Old  World, 
and  all  of  it  legitimate  consequences  of  the  European  practice 
which  yet  prevails  among  us,  especially  in  the  States  most  con- 
nected by  commerce,  literature,  and  opinion  with  the  Old 
World,  our  social  progress  is  small,  indeed,  compared  with  our 
political  enlightenment.  But  the  masses  are,  however  slow  the 
progress,  becoming  more  and  more  intelligent,  and  consequently 
more  virtuous  and  happy,  for,  however  frequent  the  exceptions 
among  individuals,  morality  among  the  masses  always  keeps 
pace  with  their  intelligence.  And  though  the  social  condition 
at  the  South  is  less,  infinitely  less  defective  than  at  the  North, 
and  social  progress  in  the  future  has  a  comparatively  circum- 
scribed field  of  action,  there  are  many  things,  doubtless,  which, 
in  the  future  time,  will  be  widely  altered  from  the  present. 
God  has  organized  and  fixed  the  nature  and  relations  of  His 
creatures,  so  that  there  is  no  conflict  of  duties,  and  that  which 
best  secures  the  happiness  of  ourselves,  also  accomplishes  the 


214  CHATTELISM. 

happiness  of  others,  whether  they  be  our  equals  or  our  in- 
feriors, men  of  our  own  race  or  negroes.  Thus,  when  the 
dominant  race — the  citizenship  of  the  South — comprehend  most 
clearly  and  truly  what  their  own  welfare  demands,  then,  too, 
and  of  necessity,  will  the  best  interests  of  the  negro  be  secured. 
The  perverse  fanatics  at  the  North,  who,  unmindful  of,  and 
indeed  dead  to  the  woes  of  their  suffering  brethren,  imagine 
the  most  terrible  miseries  among  negroes  at  the  South,  can  not 
continue  much  longer  in  their  unnatural  delusions,  and  when 
the  pressure  of  their  attempted  interference  is  withdrawn, 
earnest  and  conscientious  citizens  will  doubtless  inquire  into 
those  possible  social'  defects  that  may  exist  among  them,  and 
strive  to  apply  the  appropriate  corrections.  What  these  de- 
fects may  consist  in,  the  writer  does  not  assume  to  decide  or 
to  understand,  but  after  a  long-continued  and  patient  investi- 
gation of  the  social  condition  of  the  South,  he  thinks  he  can 
not  be  mistaken  when  he  declares  that  they  are  wholly  or 
mainly  confined  to  the  citizenship,  and  he  is  wholly  and  abso- 
lutely incapable  of  comprehending  any  wrong  whatever  in  the 
fundamental  social  relations  of  the  races  or  so-called  slavery 
of  the  South. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

EDUCATION      OF      NEGROES. 

The  fact  that  the  negro  is  a  negro,  carries  with  it  the  infer- 
ence or  the  necessity  that  his  education — the  cultivation  of  his 
faculties,  or  the  development  of  his  intelligence — must  he  in 
harmony  with  itself,  and  therefore  must  he  an  entirely  differ- 
ent thing  from  the  education  of  the  Caucasian.  The  term 
education,  in  regard  to  our  own  race,  has  widely  different  sig- 
nifications. It  may  be  the  mere  development  of  the  mind,  or 
it  may  mean,  with  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect,  the  forma- 
tion of  the  character,  as  Pope  says : 

"  'Tis  education  forms  the  common  mind  ; 
Just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree  's  inclined." 

But  without  restricting  the  term  to  the  former  limit — the 
development  of  the  intelligence — it  will  be  found  that  the  edu- 
cation of  the  negro  at  the  South  is  in  entire  harmony  with  his 
wants,  the  character  of  his  mind,  the  necessities  of  his  mentaj. 
organism  ;  and  that  they  are  the  best  educated  negro  popula- 
tion ever  known  in  humac  experience. 

Common  sense  and  experience  teach  us  to  educate  all  crea- 
tures committed  to  our  charge  in  accordance  with  their  wants. 
No  one  would  presume  to  teach  a  horse  as  he  would  a  dog,  or 
any  other  animal.  We  have  oar  schools  for  girls  as  well  as  for 
boys,  and  the  education  varies  continually  as  the  child  changes 
into  youth,  adolescence,  and  finally  into  manhood.  The  nature 
and  condition  of  the  pupil  are  the  great  central  facts — whether 


216  EDUCATION     OP    NEGBOE3. 

a  horse  or  a  dog,  a  boy  or  a  girl,  a  youth  or  a  man,  a  negro  or 
a  Caucasian ;  the  education  must,  if  natural  and  proper,  always 
hinge  on  this  central  fact.     The  negro  brain  and  mental  charac- 
ter, as  has  been  shown,  differs  from  our  own  both  in  degree 
and  in  quality,  in  the  extent  of  its  powers,  and  the  form  or 
modes  of  mental  action.     As  still  more  strikingly  manifest 
among  animals,  the  negro  child  has  more  intelligence  than  the 
white  of  the  same  age.     This  is  in  harmony  with  the  great 
fundamental  law  which  renders  the  most  perfectly  organized 
beings  most  dependent  on  reason — in  the  parents,  if  not  that  of 
the  offspring.     The  calf  or  pig  of  a  month  has  more  intelligence 
than  the  child  of  that  age  ;  the  negro  child  has  more  than  that 
of  the  Caucasian,  but  the  character  of  this  intelligence,  of 
course,  varies  in  each  and  every  case.     In  the  lower  animals  it 
is  instinct ;  in  the  case  of  the  negro  child  it  is  more  than  in- 
stinct, but  it  is  also  radically  different  from  that  nascent  ration- 
ality peculiar  to  the  white  child.     Nevertheless,  it  is  intelli- 
gence, and,  as  observed,  more  active  in  the  negro  child  than  in 
that  of  the  white  of  the  same  age — an  intelligence  which  en- 
ables it  to  preserve   life  where  the  former  would,  perhaps, 
perish,  and  thus  to  preserve  the  race  amid  the  exigencies  of 
savagism    and    the  absence  of  care  and  forethought  in  the 
parents.     It  is  this  smartness  of  the  negro  child  that  has  often 
deceived  and  deluded  those  perverse  and  deluded  people  of 
our  own  race,  who  get  up  negro  schools.     They  see,  or  rather 
think  they  see,  in  this  smartness  the  proof  of  their  theories  in 
regard  to  negroes,  and  parade  their  pets  to  admiring  visitors 
with  the  utmost  confidence  in  the  justice  and  humanity  of  their 
exertions  hi  behalf  of  an  "  oppressed  and  down-trodden  race." 
But  a  few  years  more  of  these  negro  pupils  would  be  sufficient 
(if  any  thing  could  be)  to  open  the  eyes  of  these  perverted 
people,  who,  shutting  then-  eyes  and  closing  their  ears  to  the 
ignorance  and  miseries  of  their  own  race,  waste  their  money 


EDUCATION     Or    NEGBOES.  217 

and  time  on  a  different  one ;  indeed  worse  than  -waste,  for  they 
inflict  much  evil  on  the  mistaken  objects  of  their  labors,  evils 
though  perhaps  not  traceable,  that  must  necessarily  attend 
every  one  of  these  negro  pupils  thus  forced  into  a  development 
opposed  to  the  laws  of  their  organism,  and  in  contradiction  to 
the  negro  nature. 

The  cidtivation  and  development  of  the  mental  faculties,  the 
mode  or  modes  of  education,  are  instinctive  with  our  race, 
though  constantly  improved  and  perfected  by  reason  resting  on 
experience.  The  Greeks,  Egyptians,  and  other  ancient  nations 
practiced  substantially  the  system  now  common  to  modern 
times — that  is,  they  taught  their  children  by  abstract  lessons 
as  well  as  oral  instruction.  They  studied  arithmetic,  or  the 
science  of  numbers,  grammar,  history,  etc.,  under  the  direction 
of  parents  or  guardians,  as  well  as  listened  to  lectures  on 
rhetoric  and  philosophy  in  the  "  groves  of  the  academy."  His- 
tory and  biography  were  the  legends  and  traditions  of  gods 
and  goddesses,  it  is  true,  but  modern  history  is  mainly  that 
of  kings  and  queens,  and  as  the  former  were  once  human,  the 
only  substantial  difference  consists  in  the  greater  accuracy  of 
the  latter. 

The  Mongol  mind  has  its  specific  tendencies  in  this  respect  J, 
that  is,  children  are  taught,  not  by  abstract  lessons,  but  by 
material  emblems  which  represent  their  ideas.  They  have  no 
history,  in  our  sense  of  the  term.  It  is  utterly  impossible  that 
the  Mongol  mind  can  trace  back  events  beyond  a  certain  num- 
ber of  generations,  and  the  crude  and  contradictory  mass  cf 
nonsense  which  passes  for  Chinese  history  or  the  "  Annals  of 
China,"  is  the  work  of  Caucasian  Tartars  or  those  of  predom- 
inating Caucasian  innervation. 

The  negro  has  never  taken  one  step  towards  mental  devel- 
opment, as  we  understand  it.  He  has  never  invented  an  alpha- 
bet— that  primal  starting-point  in  mental  cultivation — he  has 

10 


218  EDUCATION     OF     NEGROES. 

never  comprehended  even  the  simplest  numerals — in  short,  has 
had  no  instruction  and  can  give  no  instruction  except  that 
which  is  verbal  and  imitated,  which  the  child  copies  from  the 
parents,  which  is  limited  to  the  existing  generation,  and  there- 
fore the  present  generation  are  in  the  same  condition  that  their 
progenitors  occupied  thousands  of  years  ago.  But  the  Al 
mighty  has  adapted  him  to  a  very  different  condition  from 
this  fixed  and  non-progressive  savagism.  All  the  subordinate 
races  have  a  certain  capacity  for  imitating  the  higher  habitudes 
of  the  Caucasian,  unless  it  be  the  Mongol,  which,  perhaps, 
does  not  possess  this  faculty.  The  English  have  been  mas- 
ters in  Hindostan  for  more  than  a  century — their  power  rests 
on  the  same  tenure  of  force  on  which  it  was  founded — they 
have  made  no  impression  whatever  on  the  habitudes  of  the 
Hindostanee — then-  language,  their  schools,  their  religion,  their 
mental  habits,  are  untouched,  and  it  may  be  doubted  if  God 
ever  designed  that  they  should  be  in  juxtaposition  or  made 
subject  to  a  superior  race. 

In  regard  to  the  negro,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  not  merely 
because,  by  himself,  he  is  a  non-producing  and  non-advancing 
savage,  but  because  his  entire  structure,  mental  and  physical, 
is  adapted  to  juxtaposition.  All  the  other  races  have  a  certain 
specific  character  to  overcome  first,  or  to  be  understood  and 
properly  harmonized,  but  the  negro  is  a  blank,  a  wilderness,  a 
barren  waste,  waiting  for  the  husbandman  or  the  Caucasian 
teacher  to  develop  his  real  worth,  and  gifted  with  his  wonder 
ful  imitative  powers,  he  not  only  never  resists,  but  reaching 
forth  his  hands  for  guidance  and  protection,  at  once  accepts 
his  teacher,  and  submits  himself  to  his  control.  Of  the  four 
millions  now  in  our  midst,  a  considerable  proportion  are  the 
children  of  native  Africans,  indeed,  there  are  not  a  few  natives 
still  among  us,  and  yet  everything  connected  with  Africa — 
their  traditions,  language,   religion,   even   their  names   have 


EDUCATION     OF     NEGROES.  219 

wholly  disappeared.  The  Normans  conquered  the  Saxons 
eight  centuries  ago,  but  the  Saxon  names,  and  even  their  lan- 
guage, are  now  as  entirely  Saxon  as  if  a  Norman  had  never 
landed  on  the  shores  of  England.  This  blank,  this  feeble  men- 
tal capacity  and  readiness  of  the  negro  nature  to  imitate  the 
habits,  bodily  or  mental,  of  the  superior  race,  adapts  the  negro 
to  his  subordinate  social  position,  and  the  purposes  to  which 
Providence  has  assigned  him.  The  child-like  intellect  does  not 
resist  the  strong  and  enduring  mental  energies  of  the  Cauca- 
sian— its  first  impressions  pass  away  in  a  few  years,  while  its 
imitative  capacities  sit  so  gracefully  on  the  negro  nature  that 
multitudes  of  ignorant  people  confound  the  real  with  the  bor- 
rowed, and  actually  suppose  that  the  "  smart"  negroes  to  be 
met  with  occasionally  at  the  North  are  examples  of  native 
capacity.  Of  course,  the  borrowed  intelligence  is  equally 
short-lived,  and  were  our  negroes  carried  back  to  Africa,  they 
would  lose  what  they  had  acquired  here  with  the  same  rapid- 
ity that  they  have  parted  with  their  original  Africanism,  and 
names  among  them  now  celebrated  would  be  as  utterly  lost  a 
hundred  years  hence  as  their  African  names  have  disappeared 
here.  These  things  being  so,  it  obviously  follows  that  negro 
"  education"  must  be  oral  and  verbal,  or,  in  other  words,  that 
the  negro  should  be  placed  in  the  best  position  possible  for  the 
development  of  his  imitative  powers — to  call  into  action  that 
peculiar  capacity  for  copying  the  habits,  mental  and  moral,  of 
the  superior  Caucasian.  It  may  be  said  that  aH  mental  instruc- 
tion is  through  the  imitative  capacity,  or  that  our  own  chil- 
dren are  thus  educated,  but  the  negro  mind,  in  essential  re- 
spects, is  always  that  of  a  child.  The  intelligence,  as  observed,  is 
more  rapidly  developed  in  the  negro  child — those  faculties  more 
immediately  connected  with  sensation,  perception,  and  perhaps 
memory,  are  more  energetic,  but  Avhen  they  reach  twelve  and 
fifteen  they  diverge,    the  reflective  faculties  in  the  white  are 


220  EDUCATION     OF     NEGROES. 

now  called  into  action,  the  real  Caucasian  character  now  opens, 
the  mental  forces  are  fairly  evolved,  while  the  negro  remains 
stationary — a  perpetual  child.  The  negro  of  forty  or  fifty  has 
more  experience  or  knowledge,  perhaps,  as  the  white  man  of 
that  age  has  a  more  extended  knowledge  than  the  man  of 
twenty-five,  but  the  intellectual  calibre — the  actual  mental 
capacity  in  the  former  case  is  no  greater  than  it  was  at  fifteen, 
when  its  utmost  limits  were  reached — its  entire  power  in  full 
development. 

The  universal  experience  which,  in  this  as  many  other  in- 
stances, usually  rests  upon  truth,  leads  the  people  of  the  South 
to  designate  the  negro  of  any  age  as  a  "  boy" — an  expression 
perfectly  correct,  in  an  intellectual  sense,  as  the  negro  reaches 
his  mental  maturity  at  twelve  or  fifteen,  and  viewed  from  our 
stand-point,  is,  therefore,  always  a  boy.  Indeed,  this  psycho- 
logical fact,  together  with  his  imitative  instinct,  constitutes  the 
specific  character  of  the  race,  and  present  the  landmarks  neces- 
sary for  our  guidance  when  dealing  with  the  mental  and  moral 
wants  of  the  negro.  Intellectually  considered,  he  is  always  a 
boy — a  perpetual  child — needing  the  care  and  guidance  of  his 
master,  and  his  instinctive  tendencies  to  imitate  him,  therefore, 
demand  that,  as  in  the  case  of  children,  the  master  should 
present  him  a  proper  example.  His  mental  wants,  it  is  be- 
lieved, are  provided  for,  and  his  capabilities  in  these  respects 
fully  developed  at  the  South.  They  are  in  pretty  extensive 
intercourse  with  the  white  people ;  even  on  the  large  planta- 
tions they  have  the  master's  family  or  that  of  the  overseer  to 
copy  after  and  to  guide  them,  and  though  it  may  be  that 
something  more  is  needed,  that  a  better  mental  training  is  pos- 
sible in  the  future,  it  is,  at  all  events,  certain  that  this  verbal 
instruction  is  better  adapted  to  their  wants  than  the  schools 
and  colleges  of  a  different  and  vastly  superior  race.  If  any 
one  should  propose  to  teach  children  of  five  the  branches 


EDUCATION     OF     NEGR0E8.  221 

proper  to  those  of  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age,  or  the  latter 
those  that  occupy  young  men  in  the  universities,  it  would  he 
seen  at  a  glance  that  this  teaching  was  unnatural  and  improper. 
And  our  every-day  experience  will  show  that  it  is  injurious, 
not  alone  to  the  mental,  but  to  the  bodily  health  of  the  pupil. 
The  same  or  similar  results  must  attend  the  school  education 
of  negroes.  It  is,  perhaps,  difficult  to  trace  the  consequences 
of  negro  education  at  the  North.  There  are  but  few  negroes, 
and  the  mulattoes  and  mongrels  who  pass  for  such  must  pay  a 
penalty  for  this  education  according,  doubtless,  to  their  pro- 
portion of  negro  blood. 

The  mongrels,  and  possibly  some  negroes  at  the  North,  often 
seem  as  well  educated  as  white  men,  but  it  must  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  body,  shortening  the  existence,  just  as  we  some- 
times witness  in  the  case  of  children  when  the  pride,  vanity,  or 
ignorance  of  parents  have  stimulated  their  minds,  and  dwarfed 
or  destroyed  their  bodies.  An  "  educated"  negro,  like  a  "  free 
negro,"  is  a  social  monstrosity,  even  more  unnatural  and 
repulsive  than  the  latter. 

It  is  creditable  to  the  people  of  the  South  that  no  such  out- 
rage on  nature  and  common  sense  is  found  in  all  her  borders. 
God  has  made  the  negro  an  inferior  being,  not  in  most  cases, 
but  all  cases,  for  there  are  no  accidents  or  exceptions  in  His 
works.  There  never  could  be  such  a  thing  as  a  negro  equal- 
ing the  standard  Caucasian  in  natural  ability.  The  same 
Almighty  Creator  has  also  made  all  white  men  equal — for 
idiots,  insane  people,  etc.,  are  not  exceptions,  they  are  results 
of  human  vices,  crimes,  or  ignorance,  immediate  or  remote. 
"What  a  folse  and  vicious  state  of  society,  therefore,  when 
human  institutions  violate  this  eternal  order,  and  by  withhold- 
ing education  from  their  own  brethren,  educate  the  inferior 
negro,  and  in  a  sense  make  him  superior  to  white  men,  by  set- 
ting aside  the  law  of  God ! 


222  EDUCATION     OF     NEGROES. 

Some  of  the  States  have  passed  laws  against  teaching  negroes 
to  read ;  a  more  extended  and  enlightened  knowledge  of  the 
negro  will,  doubtless,  some  day  govern  this  matter  through 
public  opinion,  and  without  governmental  interference.  The 
negro  learns  from  his  master  all  he  needs  to  know,  all  that  he 
can  know,  in  a  proper  sense,  all  that  is  essential  to  the  perform- 
ance of  his  duties,  or  necessary  to  his  happiness  and  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  purposes  to  which  nature  has  adapted  him ;  and 
though  there  might,  perhaps,  be  no  good  reason  given  why  he 
should  be  prohibited  from  learning  to  read,  it  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  it  is  absurd,  as.  well  as  a  waste  of  time  that  should  be 
carefully  employed.  His  mental  powers  are  unable  to  grapple 
with  science  or  philosophy,  or  abstractions  of  any  kind,  and  it 
would  be  folly  to  suppose  that  he  would  be  or  could  be  inter- 
ested in  history  or  biography,  in  which  his  race,  his  instincts, 
his  wants  have  no  share,  record,  or  connection  whatever. 

All  this  applies,  of  course,  to  the  South — to  negroes  in  their 
normal  condition  and  natural  relation  to  the  superior  race. 
It  may  be  well  enough  at  the  North,  as  long  as  they  have 
mongrels  and  free  negroes,  to  provide  schools  for  them,  as 
they  have  no  other  guide  or  protector  but  the  State  itself,  but 
though  they  thus  acquire  a  certain  kind  of  mental  activity,  as 
observed,  it  is  at  the  expense  of  the  vital  forces,  and  another 
of  those  incidental  causes  that  tend  to  the  final  extinction  of 
this  abnormal  element.  It  is,  however,  a  disgrace,  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  crime  in  any  State  to  educate  negroes  or 
mongrels,  so  long  as  they  have  one  single  uneducated  white 
man  within  their  limits.  The  proof  of  this  is  seen  every  day 
in  the  fact,  that  however  educated,  or  whatever  the  seeming 
mental  superiority  of  the  "  colored"  man,  the  uneducated 
Avhite  man  tolerates  no  equality.  Thus  nature  vindicates  her 
rights,  and  whatever  the  ignorance,  delusion,  or  crimes  of 
society,  the  eternal  order  fixed  by  the  hand  of  God  is  inevi- 
table and  everlasting. 


"TCi«^. 


AMERICAN      INDIAN. 


UNSVEFfb 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE     DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS. 

The  instinct  of  paternity — the  love  and  care  of  offspring — is 
common  to  all  creatures,  animal  and  human,  and  is  indeed 
necessary  to  the  preservation  of  their  existence.  The  animal 
frequently  exhibits  it  more  decidedly  than  the  human  creature, 
and  however  unseemly  it  may  be,  we,  even  our  own  supremely 
endowed  race,  may  take  a  lesson  from  it.  The  animal  instinct, 
however,  is  limited  to  the  mere  preservation  of  the  life  of  its 
offspring,  and  the  latter,  when  a  certain  development  is 
reached,  no  longer  needs  it,  for  its  own  instinct  then  guides  it 
to  preserve  itself. 

The  love,  and  care,  and  guidance  of  the  Caucasian  mother 
for  her  child  is  both  a  profound  instinct  and  a  lofty  sentiment, 
and  indeed  calls  into  action  the  highest  capabilities  of  her 
nature,  her  profoundest  intelligence  as  well  as  the  most  exalted 
and  self-sacrificing  affection.  It  begins  with  the  birth  and 
ends  only  with  the  death,  for  though  it  is  constantly  modified 
by  time  and  changes  in  the  development  of  her  offspring,  it 
accompanies  the  latter  through  life,  and  disappears  only  at  the 
portals  of  the  grave. 

God  has  endowed  the  parents  with  the  highest  intelligence, 
and  laid  on  them  the  command  or  the  duty  of  caring  for  their 
offspring — not  the  mere  bodily  preservation,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  animal,  but  the  education,  the  guidance  and  develop- 
ment of  the  faculties,  the  moral  capabilities  as  well  as  the  intel- 
lectual powers  of  their  children.     lie,  therefore,  has  endowed 


224  THE     DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS. 

them  with  affections  of  corresponding  breadth  and  strength, 
and  adapted  them  to  these  duties,  and,  moreover,  rewards  them 
with  corresponding  enjoyment  or  happiness  in  the  affections 
and  love  of  their  offspring.  These  duties  are  too  often  imper- 
fectly performed,  indeed  often  misunderstood.  Tliey  are  some- 
times delegated  to  others,  sometimes  carelessly  fulfilled,  and 
often  disregarded  altogether.  They  should  never  be  delegated 
to  others  unless  the  loss  of  health  or  some  imperative  cause 
exists.  The  mother  should  always  nurse  her  own  child — if 
able  to  do  so — and  the  parents  should  always  educate  their 
own  children.  In  the  main,  this  is  done  in  our  American  soci- 
ety, for  though  children  go  to  the  public  schools,  the  impress 
of  the  character  is  generally  made  at  home.  The  child  arriv- 
ing at  adult  age,  and  no  longer  needing  the  care  and  guidance 
of  the  parents,  marries  and  leaves  home,  but  the  affection  of 
the  parents,  especially  that  of  the  mother,  accompanies  it 
through  life,  and  not  unfrequently,  after  a  separation  of  forty 
years,  it  is  found  to  be  as  strong  and  fresh  as  in  the  days  of 
childhood.  The  large  brain  of  the  Caucasian  mother,  or  her 
large  intellectual  nature,  as  has  been  said,  is  associated  with 
corresponding  capabilities  of  affection.  The  interests  of  life, 
the  social  welfare,  the  progress  of  civilization — in  short,  abso- 
lute social  necessities,  demand  this,  for  were  it  otherwise,  were 
the  affections  limited  to  the  infancy  of  the  offspring,  society, 
as  it  now  exists,  or  indeed  anything  at  all  resembling  it,  would 
obviously  be  impossible. 

The  interest  of  parents  in  their  children,  years  after  they 
have  left  home— their  grandchildren,  etc.,  though  separated 
thousands  of  miles — their  letters  to  them,  their  visits  to  the 
old  homestead,  and  the  ten  thousand  other  nameless  things 
that  bind  together  those  of  the  same  blood,  constitute  a  large 
portion  of  our  social  existence,  and  is  indeed  an  essential  part 
of  our  civilization.     And  all  of  this  is  dependent  on  th'j  affec- 


THE     DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS.  225 

tions  and  hi  harmony  with  the  elevated  intellectualistn  of  the 
race,  the  breadth  and  strength  of  the  former  corresponding, 
of  course,  with  the  mental  endowments  and  specific  capabil- 
ities of  the  Caucasian, 

The  negro,  of  course,  is  endowed  with  affections,  approxima- 
ting in  some  respects,  indeed  in  many  respects,  to  those  of  our 
own  race,  but  there  are  some  things,  some  qualities  in  his 
emotional  nature  utterly  different,  and  then  again  some  things 
specific  with  us  totally  absent  in  the  negro.  The  mother  has 
a  similar  love  for  her  offspring  at  an  early  period  in  its  exist- 
ence, possibly  stronger,  or  rather  more  imperatively  instinc- 
tive, than  that  of  the  white  woman.  Instances  are  not  unfre- 
quent  among  the  lower  classes  in  England,  and  other  European 
countries,  where  mothers  destroy  their  offspring,  and  pain- 
ful as  it  is  to  acknowledge  it,  the  same  thing  sometimes 
happens  at  the  North ;  but  though  an  instance  of  the  kind  is 
possible,  there  have  been  so  few  among  negroes  at  the  South 
as  to  warrant  us  in  saying  that  not  one  person  in  a  thousand 
has  ever  heard  of  such  a  thing.  It  is  true,  the  negro  is  in  a 
normal  condition,  and  the  European  peasant  is,  to  a  certain 
extent,  in  an  abnormal  one,  and  vice  and  crime,  and  consequent 
misery,  are  always  in  exact  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the 
latter  in  all  races.  Nevertheless,  it  is  quite  certain  that,  both 
living  under  equally  favorable  circumstances,  the  negress  is  less 
likely  to  destroy  the  life  of  her  offspring  than  is  the  white 
woman.  Her  maternal  instincts  are  more  imperative,  mort 
closely  approximate  to  the  animal,  while  that  sense  of  degra- 
dation which  the  higher  nature  and  more  elevated  sensibilities 
of  the  white  woman  prompts  to  the  hiding  of  her  shame  by 
the  destruction  of  her  offspring,  is  entirely  absent  in  the  negress. 
She  may  possibly  destroy  her  child  in  a  paroxysm  of  rage,  but 
here  nature  has  guarded  her  too  strongly  by  the  imperative  ma- 
ternal instinct,  while  those  ten  thousand  chances  in  our  higher 

10* 


226  THE    DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS. 

habitudes  and  social  complications  which  may  involve  the  most 
exquisite  suffering  of  the  unhappy  mother,  and  impel  her,  by 
one  terrible  and  supreme  crime,  to  destroy  her  own  offspring, 
can  never  happen  or  influence  the  negro  mother. 

A  few  years  since  a  "  slave"  woman  escaping  from  Kentucky 
to  Ohio  was  recognized  and  taken  back  to  her  home,  but  on 
the  way  down  the  river  cut  the  throat  of  her  child,  whom  she 
had  carried  off  in  her  flight.  The  Abolitionists,  of  course, 
admired  and  praised  this  bloody  deed,  and  declared  that,  rather 
than  her  child  should  live  a  slave,  she,  with  Roman  sternness 
and  French  exaltation,  herself  destroyed  its  life.  If  they  had 
said  that  the  mother  had  killed  her  child  because  it  was  not 
permitted  to  have  a  white  skin,  or  straight  hair,  or  to  have  any 
other  specialty  of  white  people,  it  would  have  been  quite  as 
rational  and  as  near  the  truth  as  to  say  that  she  killed  it  be- 
cause it  was  not  to  grow  up  with  the  freedom  of  the  white 
man.  The  woman  was  doubtless  a  mulatto  or  mongrel,  who 
in  revenge  possibly  for  the  supposed  wrong,  inflicted  this  pun- 
ishment on  those  whom  she  had  been  taught  to  believe  had 
wronged  her.  But  while  this  unnatural  crime  was  quite  pos- 
sible, as  indeed  any  unnatural  vice  or  crime  is  always  possible 
to  the  mixed  element,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  the  negress, 
whose  imperative  maternal  instinct,  as  has  been  observed, 
shields  her  from  such  atrocity.  The  negro  mother  has  always 
control  and  direction  of  her  offspring  at  the  South  so  long  as 
that  is  needed  by  the  latter.  The  master,  of  course,  is  the 
supreme  ruler — the  guide,  director,  the  common  father,  the 
very  providence  of  these  simple  and  subordinate  people,  but 
while  his  is  the  directing  power  that  sees  to  all  their  wants, 
and  protects  them  in  all  their  rights,  the  relations  of  mother 
and  child  are  rarely  interfered  with,  for  both  the  interests  of  the 
master  and  the  happiness  of  the  mother  demand  that  she 
should  have  the  care  and  enjoy  the  affection  of  her  own  off 


THE     DOMESTIC    AFFECTIONS.  227 

spring.  This,  however,  is  confined  to  a  limited  sphere  when 
contrasted  with  the  instinctive  habitudes  and  enlarged  intellect 
tualism  of  our  own  race.  The  negro  child,  hi  some  respects, 
at  the  same  age,  is  more  intelligent  than  the  white  child.  This 
same  fact  is  manifested  by  our  domestic  animals.  The  dog  or 
call  of  six  months  is  vastly  less  dependent  on  the  mother  than 
the  human  creature.  The  negro  child,  with  its  vastly  greater 
approximation  to  the  animal,  is  also  less  dependent  at  a  cer- 
tain age  than  the  white  child.  As  frequently  stated  in  this 
work,  the  negro  has  absolutely  nothing  in  common  with  ani- 
mals that  oiir  own  race  has  not. 

There  is  an  impassable  chasm,  wide  as  it  is  deep  and  ever- 
lasting, between  the  human  and  animal  creation.  But  while 
the  negro  has  nothing  whatever  in  common  with  animals  that 
we  ourselves  have  not,  in  all  those  things  or  qualities  in  a  sense 
common  to  both  men  and  animals,  the  negro  has  a  vastly  larger 
approximation  to  the  latter.  As  the  intelligence  or  the  capac- 
ity of  providing  for  itself,  therefore,  is  more  rapidly  developed 
in  the  animal,  so,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  negro  child,  at  a  cer- 
tain age  it  is  less  dependent  on  the  care  and  affection  of  the 
mother  than  is  that  of  white  people.  Those  ignorant  and  per- 
verse persons  who  stifle  the  impulses  and  sympathies  with  which 
God  has  endowed  them  for  their  kind,  and  engage  in  teach- 
ing, as  they  suppose,  negro  children,  have  been  so  impressed 
by  this  fact,  that  in  their  utter  ignorance  of  the  negro  nature, 
they  have  inferred  that  the  latter  was  really  the  superior  race ; 
they  have  often  found  a  negro  boy  or  girl  of  ten  years,  for 
example,  whose  percej>tions,  memory,  etc.,  seemed  to  them, 
and,  doubtless,  sometimes  were,  more  clear,  prompt,  and  de- 
cided, than  those  of  Avhite  children  of  the  same  age,  and  there- 
fore they  were  quite  convinced  of  the  superiority  of  the  negro 
and  of  the  sublimity  and  immensity  of  their  own  labors  in  thus 


228  THE    DOMESTIC    AFFECTIONS. 

helping  on  the  intellectual  development  of  a  wronged  and 
down-trodden  but  really  superior  race. 

But  if  they  could  have  followed  out  the  future  of  thes* 
children  for  a  few  years,  and  were  persons  of  sufficient  under- 
derstanding  to  analyze  facts  at  all,  they  would  have  made  a 
still  more  startling  discovery  than  that  of  the  fancied  superi- 
ority of  the  negro.  The  negro  mind  reaches  its  maturity,  its  com- 
plete development,  at  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years,  and  though 
there  may  be  vastly  more  knowledge  or  experience,  the  negro 
of  fifty  has  no  more  actual  mental  capacity  than  he  had  at  fif- 
teen. The  faculties  directly  dependent  on  the  senses  are  act- 
ively and  rapidly  developed  in  the  negro  child,  but  the  reflect- 
ive faculties,  the  faculries  in  regard  to  which  the  senses  are 
mere  avenues  through  which  external  influences  are  conveyed 
to  the  brain,  are  absent,  of  course,  in  the  negro,  for  there  is  an 
absence  of  brain  itself,  and  therefore  it  is  just  as  absurd  to  im- 
agine him  possessing  them  as  to  suppose  the  sense  of  sight  in 
any  creature  without  eyes  or  without  an  organism  for  that  fac- 
ulty. The  white  boy,  on  the  contrary,  only  begins  at  this  age 
to  manifest  the  reflective  faculties,  which,  constantly  expand- 
ing, doubtless  reach  their  maturity  from  twenty  to  twenty-five. 
Of  course  the  mind  may  continue  to  expand  in  a  sense  for 
many  years,  for  a  fife-time,  but  the  actual  mental  capabilities, 
like  those  of  the  body,  doubtless  reach  their  normal  standard 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five.  Thus,  a  white  boy  and  negro  of 
ten,  with  the  faculties  directly  dependent  on  the  senses  possi- 
bly most  active  in  the  latter,  begin  a  year  or  two  later  to  di- 
verge from  each  other.  The  negro  at  fifteen,  with  scarcely 
perceptible  reflective  faculties,  remains  stationary,  while  the 
Caucasian,  with  constantly  increasing  powers,  with  imagina- 
tion, comparison,  and  reflection,  superadded  to  the  mere  per- 
ceptive  faculties,  requires  several  years  more  for  the  develop- 
ment of  his  complete  intellectual  nature.     It  is  not  merely  that 


THE    DOMESTIC     A.FFECTIONS.  220 

the  negro  mind  becomes  stationary  at  twelve  to  fifteen,  for  to 
them  it  is  complete  development,  but  if  we  can  suppose  a 
white  boy  of  twelve  to  fourteen  remaining  thus — mentally 
considered — through  life,  then  we  can  form  a  pretty  accurate 
conception  of  the  mental  differences  between  white  men  and 
negroes,  for  the  latter  are  intellectually  boys  for  ever.  This  is  a 
common  and  familiar  expression  at  the  South,  which  originates 
in  the  nature  and  necessities  of  things,  and  the  term  boy  ex- 
presses the  intellectual  existence  of  the  negro  as  truthfully  as 
the  term  man  expresses  the  physical  condition  of  the  white 
man. 

The  affections  harmonize,  of  course,  with  the  mental  nature, 
and  the  love  of  the  negro  mother  corresponds  with  the  wants 
of  the  offspring.  She  has  a  boundless  affection  for  her  infant ; 
it  grows  feebler  as  the  capacities  of  the  child  are  developed ;  at 
twelve  to  fifteen  she  is  relatively  indifferent  to  it ;  at  forty  she 
scarcely  recognizes  it ;  and  all  of  these  phases  in  the  maternal 
instinct  or  domestic  affections  of  the  race  are  in  accord  with 
its  specific  nature  and  the  purposes  assigned  it  by  the  Almighty 
Creator.  Without  the  enlarged  brain  and  reasoning  power  of 
the  white  mother,  nature  has  made  amends  to  the  negress,  and 
provided  for  the  wants  of  her  offspring  by  giving  her  a  more 
imperative  maternal  instinct,  that  shall  insure  its  safety  and 
welfare.  "When  the  negro  reaches  maturity,  at  twelve  to  fif- 
teen, nature  has  accomplished  her  purposes.  The  offspring  no 
longer  needs  her  care,  and  the  mother  becomes  indifferent  to 
it,  and  it  cares  little  for  the  mother.  A  few  years  later,  and 
she  forgets  it  altogether,  for  her  affections  corresponding  with 
her  intellectual  nature,  there  is  no  basis,  or  material,  or  space 
for  such  things.  Of  course,  living  in  juxtaposition  with  the 
superior  race,  and  the  imitative  faculty  of  the  negro  constantly 
brought  into  action,  there  is  a  seeniing  resemblance  to  white 
people  in  these  respects.     But  one  only  needs  to  remember  the 


230  THE    DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS. 

mental  qualities  of  tlie  negro — the  small  and  widely  different 
brain,  and  consequently  feeble,  and,  as  compared  with  us,  lim- 
ited sphere  of  intellectualism,  to  see  the  absurdity  of  endow- 
ing the  negro  with  domestic  affections  corresponding  with 
ours.     At  twelve  to  fifteen,  as  has  been  said,  the  purposes  of 
nature  are  accomplished.     The  offspring  no  longer  needs  the 
care  of  the  mother — the  affections  with  which  nature  endowed 
her  are   no  longer  needed.     Why  shoidd  they  exist,  then  ? 
Isolated  in  Africa,  they  perhaps  rarely  feel  any  interest  in  their 
offspring  after  the  latter  reach  maturity,  and,  separated 'a  few 
years,  would  not  know  them,  would  have  no  recollection  of 
them,  for  there  is  no  civilization,  no  social  development,  nothing 
whatever  of  that  which  we  call  society,  and  in  which  with  us 
the  domestic  affections — the  family  relationship — the  love  of 
mother,  wife,  sisters,  brothers,  and  offspring  constitute  so  large 
and  essential  a  part.     The  limited  intelligence  of  the  negro,  the 
small  brain  and  feeble  (scarcely  perceptible)  reasoning  facul- 
ties, it  will  be  evident  to  the  reader,  must  be  accompanied  by 
corresponding  domestic  affections  and  an  emotional  nature  that 
accords  with  this  limited  intellectualism.     And  this  is  mani- 
fested in  the  habits,  wants,  and  condition  of  the  negro  at  the 
South,  in  his  feeble  and  capricious  love  for  his  wife  and  indif- 
ference to  his  offspring,  redeemed  only  in  the  potent  and  in- 
stinctive affection  of  the  mother  in  its  earlier  years  for  her 
child.     The  strongest  affection  the  negro  nature  is  capable  of 
feeling  is  love  of  his  master,  his  guide,  protector,  friend,  and 
indeed  Providence,  who  takes  care  of  him  in  sickness  and 
shelters  and  provides  for  him  hi  old  age  and  helplessness.    God 
has  adapted  all  His  creatures  for  the  wisest  and  most  benefi- 
cent purposes,  has  endowed  the  negro  with  affections  harmon- 
izing with  his  wants,  has  given  the  negro  mother  imperative 
maternal  instincts  that  shall  secure  the  safety  and  welfare  of 
her  offspring,  but  little  more,  for  little  more  is  needed;  for 


THE    DOMESTIC    AFFECTIONS.  231 

society  or  civilization  neither  does  nor  can  belong  to  negro 
existence,  while  affection  for  his  master,  love  and  devotion  to 
him  who  protects  and  provides  for  him  through  life,  is  both  a 
necessity  and  an  enjoyment,  and  therefore  God  has  made  it  the 
strongest  and  most  enduring  feeling  of  the  negro  nature.  Of 
the  four  or  five  millions  in  our  midst,  great  numbers  are  the 
children  or  grand-children  of  African  parents,  a  few  even  are 
of  African  birth,  but  probably  not  one  has  any  distinct  memory, 
recollection,  or  tradition  6f  their  forefathers* — not  one  that 
cherishes  any  past  family  sentiment  or  affection  of  any  kind 
whatever,  indeed  not  one  that  even  preserves  an  African  name ! 
We  trace  back  not  alone  the  general  but  the  family  histories, 
the  loves  and  affections,  the  hopes  and  fears,  and  sacrifices  and 
Bufferings  of  our  pilgrim  forefathers  of  two  or  three  centuries 
ago,  because  all  this  accords  with  the  large  brain  and  ex- 
panded intellectualism,  and  the  corresponding  strength  and 
breadth  of  the  affections,  which  may  be  said  to  be  the  motive 
forces  which  impel  the  whole  social  phenomena  in  question. 
But  the  negro  neither  has  nor  can  have  any  thing  in  common 
with  this.  He  has  no  capacities  of  the  kind,  no  civilization  or 
social  development,  and  therefore  no  wants  of  the  kind,  no 
affections  even  resembling  our  own,  though  at  the  same  time 
God  has  endowed  him  with  all  that  is  necessary  to  his  happi- 
piness  and  to  the  mutual  welfare  of  both  races  when  in 
juxtaposition. 

The  affection  of  the  mother  for  her  child,  and  the  husband 
for  the  wife,  though  widely  different  from  that  which  we  wit- 
ness in  our  own  race,  is  abundantly  sufficient  for  the  purposes 
that  nature  has  in  view,  and  with  the  accomplishment  of  these 

*  Those  facts,  and  some  others  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  were  referred  to 
in  a  previous  one,  but  they  need  to  be  repeated  in  this  connection  to  fix  them 
fully  on  the  mind  of  the  reader,  as  well  as  to  explain  the  subject  here  under 
discussion. 


232  THE     DOMESTIC     AFFECTIONS. 

purposes  they  subside.  The  affection  for  the  master,  which  is 
necessary  to  their  welfare  through  life,  remains — the  sole  en- 
during affection  of  the  negro  nature,  as  it  is  obviously  the  sole 
permanent  want  of  the  negro  existence.  The  laws  and  legisla- 
tion of  the  Southern  States  generally  accord  with  these  facts 
of  the  negro  nature,  for  though  those  who  have  made  these 
laws  were  unable  to  explain  them  even  to  themselves,  their 
every-day  experience  and  practical  knowledge  of  the  negro 
enable  them  to  legislate  for  the  wants  and  welfare  of  these 
people  as  well  and  justly  as  for  themselves.  Probably  all,  or 
nearly  all  of  the  States  forbid  the  separation  of  the  mother  and 
child,  so  long  as  the  maternal  instinct  remains,  or  her  care  of 
her  offspring  is  needed  by  the  latter  ;  and  even  if  there  be  no 
law  of  this  kind  on  the  statute-book  of  some  States,  it  is  in  the 
hearts  and  instincts  of  the  dominant  race,  and  is  equally  potent 
in  the  form  of  public  sentiment  to  prevent  such  an  outrage  on 
nature  as  the  forced  separation  of  mother  and  child. 

There  are,  doubtless,  instances  where  wrong  is  done  at  the 
South,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  to  the  subordinate  negro  as  well 
as  to  our  own  kind,  but  with  the  same  political  and  social  sys- 
tem as  that  of  the  North,  and  with  vastly  more  political  intelli- 
gence and  faithfulness  to  the  principles  of  that  system,  it  is  only 
reasonable  to  conclude  that,  in  regard  to  the  negro  element,  the 
same  enlightened  spirit  of  justice  and  fair  dealing  generally 
pervades  Southern  society.  And  when  it  is  remembered  that 
the  social  adaptation  is  in  harmony  with  the  natural  relations 
of  the  races,  and  not  only  that  there  is  no  social  conflict,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  that  it  is  the  utmost  interest  of  the  master  to 
treat  his  negroes  kindly,  then  whatever  the  temporary  excep- 
tions, the  general  result  must  be  in  favor  of  the  happiness  and 
welfare  of  these  people. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

MARRIAGE. 

Nothing,  perhaps,  is  so  repugnant  to  the  northern  mind  as 
the  notion  that  marriage  does  not  exist  among  the  "  slaves"  of 
the  South,  and  the  Abolition  lecturers  have  given  this  subject 
the  most  prominent  place  in  their  terrible  bill  of  indictment 
against  their  southern  brethren.  The  spectacle,  or  the  seeming 
spectacle,  of  four  millions  of  human  beings  living  without  mar- 
riage, without  family,  without  children,  with  nothing  but  off- 
spring, shut  out,  like  the  brutes  that  perish,  from  all  the  house- 
hold charities,  and  doomed  to  live  in  universal  concubinage,  as 
it  has  been  termed,  was,  to  the  northern  and  European  mind, 
such  a  stupendous  outrage  on  "  humanity,"  that  we  need  not 
wonder  at  their  fierce  indignation,  or  at  the  wild  and  unsparing 
denunciation  heaped  upon  the  authors  of  such  boundless  and 
unparalleled  iniquity.  Especially  were  northern  women  shocked 
and  indignant,  and  above  all  others,  the  women  of  New  Eng- 
land were  excited  at  times  to  a  "  Divine  fury"  when  contem- 
plating this  mighty  "wickedness."  Our  fair  countrywomen 
are  believed  to  be  equally  virtuous  and  lovely,  but  the  domes- 
tic education  of  those  of  New  England,  in  some  respects,  is 
more  admirable  than  that  of  others  or  any  other  country. 
They  are  taught  to  labor,  to  be  their  own  housekeepers,  to 
regard  life,  and  the  duties  of  life,  as  a  solemn  mission  to  be 
faithfully  and  conscientiously  fulfilled,  and  though  it  imparts  a 
certain  materialism  bordering  on  hardness,  perhaps,  to  the  New 
England  woman,  it  is  associated  with  such  simple  and  trans- 


234  MARRIAGE. 

parent  love  of  truth,  and  such  an  earnest  and  abiding  sense  of 
duty,  that  the  harsher  features  of  the  character  are  lost  in 
these  gentler  and  more  exalted  qualities.  Hence  they  are 
taught  to  regard  a  violation  of  the  family  relation  as  the  one 
most  heinous  and  unpardonable  sin.  To  women  thus  educated, 
with  the  utmost  abhorrence  of  any  violation  of  marital  obli- 
gations, the  seeming  universal  disregard  of  this  relation,  and 
the  duties  embraced  in  it,  among  the  "  slaves"  of  the  South, 
was  probably  the  most  transcendent  wrong  that  the  mind 
could  conceive  of,  and  the  "anti-slavery"  delusion  of  the 
North  has  doubtless  been  increased  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  this  strictness  or  severity  of  female  education.  And  if  the 
facts  were  what  they  suppose,  then  indeed  would  their  indig- 
nation and  abhorrence  be  just  enough,  but  strange  that  they 
should  never  have  doubted  or  mistrusted  these  facts.  Many 
of  the  most  intelligent  have  known  their  sisters  of  the  South, 
known  them  to  be  as  virtuous,  refined  and  womanly  as  them- 
selves, and  yet  living  every  day  of  their  lives  in  the  shadow  of 
tms  mighty  wrong,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  supposititious  ini- 
quity. Could  that  be  possible  ?  Could  woman  retain  her 
purity,  her  womanly  delicacy,  or  expand  into  the  full  stature 
of  a  true  womanhood  with  such  surroundings,  in  an  atmos- 
phere thus  corrupt  and  corrupting,  in  a  social  condition  where 
four  millions  of  ji>eople  were  living  without  marriage,  in  open 
and  utter  disregard  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  morality 
as  well  as  of  social  order  ?  No,  indeed,  it  could  not  be  possi- 
ble, and,  as  remarked,  it  is  strange  that  the  women  of  the 
North  have  not  had  misgivings  of  this  kind,  or  have  not  mis- 
trusted the  assumed  facts  of  "  negro  slavery"  in  this  respect. 
But  before  the  actual  facts  involved  are  presented  to  the  read- 
er, it  is  nec&ssary  to  clearly  understand  what  marriage  itself 
is.  It  may  be  defined  as  the  pledge  of  two  persons  of  differ- 
ent sex  to  five  together  for  life — pledged  to  each  other  and  to 


MARRIAGE.  235 

society,  for  the  presence  of  witnesses  to  a  marriage  contract 
or  a  marriage  ceremony  has  simply  this  meaning,  and  none 
other.  "With  us  marriage  is  a  mere  civil  or  legal  contract.  It 
is  the  same  in  France,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  England,  but 
in  other  countries  it  is  combined  with  religious  considerations, 
and  the  Catholic  church  makes  it  a  sacrament.  This  is  mar- 
riage, as  ordinarily  understood,  as  the  necessities  of  the  social 
order  compel  us  to  accept  and  regard  it.  Nevertheless,  every 
one's  instincts  will  assure  him  that  marriage  consists  in  reality 
of  vastly  more  than  this  description  of  it.  A  man  and  woman 
may  pledge  themselves  to  each  other  and  to  society — all  the 
legal  and  customary  forms  may  be  complete,  and  yet  we  know, 
or  may  know  that  there  is  no  true  marriage,  for  these  parties 
may  be  entirely  indifferent,  or  even  objects  of  actual  dislike  to 
each  other.  The  obligations  or  dirty  to  society  may  be  ful- 
filled, the  interests  of  families  provided  for,  the  legal  rights  of 
the  parties  themselves  properly  protected,  even  the  welfare  of 
offspring  appropriately  guarded,  nevertheless,  if  the  parties  are 
not  united  by  affection,  by  those  mysterious  affinities  Avith 
which  God  Himself  has  endowed  them,  and  for  this  precise 
purpose,  then  there  is  no  true  marriage,  and,  abstractly  con- 
sidered, they  are  as  entirely  separate  as  if  they  stood  on  differ- 
ent sides  of  the  Atlantic  instead  of  at  the  altar  where  the  cere- 
mony is  being  performed.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  marriage, 
truly  considered,  involves  vastly  more  than  the  mere  external 
ceremony  or  legal  formularies,  which  the  universal  interest 
demands,  however,  as  an  essential  accompaniment.  "Increase 
and  multiply"  is  an  ordinance  of  nature  as  well  as  the  com- 
mand of  holy  writ.  All  the  innumerable  tribes  of  inferior 
bemgs  obey  this  command  with  a  regularity,  order  and  com- 
pleteness that  admit  of  no  exception  or  interruption.  They 
are  all  governed  by  instinct,  by  a  wise  necessity  which  impels 
them  to  fulfill  this  Divine  decree  and  in  modes  adapted  to  theil 


236  MAEEIAGB. 

specific  nature.  Birds  choose  their  mates,  are  faithful  to  them, 
share  together,  in  some  instances,  the  care  and  nurture  of  the 
common  offspring,  and  all  other  animals  of  the  higher  order 
exhibit  a  tendency  to  form  these  temporary  unions.  But  in 
addition  to  the  natural  instinct  impelling  us,  in  common  with 
all  other  creatures,  to  fulfill  the  universal  command  to  "  multi- 
ply and  replenish  the  earth,"  the  Almighty  Creator  has  given 
us  reason  and  endowed  us  with  capacities  of  affection  which 
are  designed  to  guide  us  in  these  respects.  A  youth  and 
maiden  are  thrown  into  each  other's  society,  an  acquaintance, 
an  intimacy,  a  mutual  affection  and  reciprocal  love  follow. 
They  feel  themselves  united,  not  merely  harmonized,  but 
morally  consolidated,  as  it  were,  into  a  single  being,  and  they 
mutually  pledge  each  other  to  be  thus  as  long  as  they  both 
shall  five.  They  are  united,  not  by  their  pledges  to  each 
other,  their  mutual  declarations  of  affection,  but  by  those 
beautiful  and  mysterious  affinities  that  God  has  planted  in  the 
soid  itself,  and  the  pledges  and  promises  are  the  mere  outward 
expression  of  their  actual  existence. 

It  is  thus  sometimes  said  that  marriages  are  made  in  Heaven, 
for  there  is  an  eternal  fitness,  a  complete  unity  or  oneness  in 
these  impalpable  agencies  which,  whatever  may  be  the  seem- 
ing incongruities  of  character  in  some  instances,  thus  link  to- 
gether for  ever  these  human  souls  as  well  as  persons.  Alas  ! 
that  it  should  so  often  be  mistaken — that  pride  and  vanity,  or 
a  groveling  and  sinful  lust,  should  be  imposed  on  the  simple 
and  loving  heart  of  woman  as  the  counterpart  of  her  own 
glowing  and  beautiful  affection;  and  the  man  guilty  of  this 
frightful  sin,  this  "  gallantry,"  as  the  corrupt  and  rotten  society 
of  Europe  designates  the  desecration  of  a  woman's  soul,  com- 
mits a  crime  infimtely  more  atrocious  than  murder  or  the  mere 
destruction  of  the  body  of  his  victim.  Unfortunately,  too, 
accident,  imperfect  education,  circumstances,  a  thousand  things 


MARRIAGE.  237 

may  and  do  lead  both  parties  to  mistake  each  other  or  them- 
selves, and  to  rush  into  marriage  only  to  discover  a  few  months 
later,  that  they  were  deluded  and  deceived,  and  instead  of  that 
perfect  unity  of  feeling,  of  affection,  of  soul,  which  they  had 
believed  in,  there  were  contradictions  and  repugnances  that 
no  gentleness  of  temper  or  strength  of  reason  or  length  of 
time  could  ever  change,  and  therefore  in  sullen  despair  they 
settle  down  into  hopeless  apathy,  or  still  worse,  shock  and 
scandalize  society  by  a  reckless  violation  of  its  laws  as  well  as 
of  the  personal  vows  so  sacredly  pledged  at  the  altar.  But 
when  the  instincts  of  natural  affection  have  been  guided  by 
reason  and  a  true  perception  of  the  wants  and  nature  of  each 
other,  and  that  perfect  unity  of  feeling  and  of  purpose  exists 
which  flows  from  this  reciprocal  adaptation  of  the  parties, 
then  there  is  marriage  in  its  true  sense,  for  then  two  relatively 
imperfect  beings  are  united  into  one  complete  whole.  And  if 
we  could  suppose  this  husband  and  wife  living  for  themselves 
alone,  and  isolated  from  all  association  with  others,  then  noth- 
ing more  would  be  needed.  They  were  united  by  affection, 
by  adaptation,  by  true  perceptions  of  each  other's  wants,  by 
those  mysterious  affinities  which  we  call  love,  hi  short,  by  an 
organic  and  eternal  fitness,  and  their  mutual  pledges  would  be 
abundantly  sufficient  for  themselves.  But  we  are  not  per- 
mitted to  suppose  such  a  thing  as  isolation  or  separation  from 
others,  or  from  society.  Our  existence  is  necessarily  complex, 
and  our  duties  relative  as  well  as  personal,  and  therefore,  mar- 
riage must  be  witnessed,  and  pledges  given  to  society  as  well 
as  made  to  each  other,  for  the  due  fulfilment  of  the  duties  in- 
volved. A  modern  doctrine,  if  it  may  be  called  thus,  has  been 
set  up  that  people  who  have  mistaken  their  "  affinities,"  and 
only  discovered  their  true  ones  after  marriage,  have  a  right  to 
correct  their  mistakes  and  form  a  new  marital  union  which 
they  may  suppose  essential  to  their  happiness.    But  they  would 


238  MARRIAGE. 

disregard  utterly  their  relations  to  others,  their  duties  to  soci- 
ety, their  reciprocal  obligations  to  their  fellows,  and  trample 
on  the  fundamental  principle  of  social  order,  indeed,  society 
would  itself  be  rendered  utterly  impossible  could  such  indi- 
vidual caprice  and  selfishness  prevail  to  any  considerable  ex- 
tent. All  their  so-called  arguments  against  the  "  institution" 
of  marriage  are,  therefore,  simply  absurd,  for  while  their  con- 
ception of  an  essential  poilion  of  it  may  be  correct  enough  as 
far  as  it  goes,  the  assumption  that  the  parties  are  alone  respon- 
sible to  each  other,  and  are  not  called  on  to  give  pledges  to 
society  in  the  form  of  a  civil  contract  or  legal  and  indissoluble 
marriage,  is  founded  on  a  total  misconception  or  total  disre- 
gard of  their  relations  to  others  and  of  the  duties  necessarily 
involved.  But  enough  on  this  point.  Marriage  is  a  natural 
relation  that  springs  spontaneously  from  the  necessities  of 
human  existence,  and  though  a  civil  contract,  it  has  a  deeper 
and  holier  significance  than  the  mere  external  ceremony  or 
pledge  which  is  thus  given  to  the  world  as  well  as  to  each 
other. 

Marriage,  is  of  course,  a  natural  relation  among  negroes  as 
well  as  ourselves,  and  were  it  true  that  these  four  millions  of 
people  were  living  without  it,  then  the  denunciations  heaped 
upon  the  people  of  the  South  would  doubtless  be  merited. 
But  a  moment's  reflection  should  be  sufficient  to  convince  any 
one,  at  all  events  any  American,  that  with  a  different  nature, 
with  different  faculties,  different  wants,  and  different  duties  of 
these  people,  there  must  follow  a  different  form  or  modification 
of  this  relation.  The  negro  is  substantially  a  child  or  unde- 
veloped and  undevelopable  man,  with  affections,  moral  wants 
and  faculties  approximating,  of  course,  to  our  own,  but  yet  so 
different  that  his  happiness  as  well  as  that  of  the  white  man 
demands  a  corresponding  development.  The  affection  of  the 
sexes  strongly  resembles  that  of  our  school-children.    It  is 


MAEEIAGB.  239 

sudden,  capricious,  superficial,  and  temporary,  and  sometimes 
violent,  but  rarely  permanent,  or  would  be  rarely  permanent 
were  it  not  for  the  example  of  the  whites,  whose  habitudes  in 
these  respects  the  imitative  instincts  of  the  negro  impel  him 
to  copy  after.  In  their  native  Africa,  and  without  the  influ- 
ence and  example  of  the  superior  race,  polygamy  is  universal, 
the  affection  of  the  husband  being  a  mere  caprice  in  most 
cases,  they  sell  their  wives  and  children  without  compunction, 
but  the  mother,  with  that  universal  maternal  instinct  common 
to  all  human  creatures,  and  to  animals  of  the  higher  classes, 
clings  tenaciously  to  her  offspring,  while  perfectly  willing  to 
change  husbands  or  owners,  as  they  really  are  in  fact.  Many 
of  the  "  rich  men"  of  Africa  are  only  so  in  the  number  of  their 
wives  and  children,  and  they  trade  and  traffic  in  this  property 
as  coolly  and  regularly  as  if  they  were  legitimate  subjects  of 
commerce.  Nevertheless,  the  natural  law  and  the  natural  ten- 
dency of  this  people  is  to  a  single  union,  and  probably  a  large 
majority  of  the  native  Africans  have  only  one  wife.  There  is 
no  natural  tendency  to  polygamy  in  any  race,  for  the  numbers 
of  the  sexes  being  equal,  the  natural  impulse  is  to  a  single 
union.  But  their  feeble  and  capricious  affections  lead  to  poly- 
gamy, and  their  incapacity  to  purchase  or  support  wives  is  the 
only  limit  to  the  negro  practice  in  these  respects.  Under  the 
teachings  and  restraints  of  the  superior  race  at  the  South,  the 
negroes,  male  and  female,  are  vastly  elevated  in  this  regard,  as 
well  as  others  above  their  African  habitudes.  They  form  sex- 
ual unions  or  marry  essentially  like  the  whites.  The  parties 
become  intimate,  an  affection  springs  up,  they  ask  and  receive 
the  consent  of  their  masters,  and  they  are  married  by  a  white 
clergyman  or  by  a  minister  of  their  own  people.  Thus  far, 
marriage  among  "  slaves"  is,  on  the  surface  at  least,  an  exact 
copy  of  the  marriage  of  whites.  They  ask  the  consent  of  their 
masters,  as  white  persons  ask  the  consent  of  their  parents  or 


240  MARRIAGE. 

guardians,  and  they  are  married  with  the    )aine  ceremonies 
either  by  a  minister  of  their   own,  or,  as  -    en   occurs, 

by  a  white  clergyman.  But  here  they  diverge.  The  negro 
does  not  and  can  not  constitute  a  part  or  portion  of  that 
mighty  fabric  we  term  society.  Pie  has  no  social  interests, 
no  property  to  guard  or  to  devise,  for  though  he  receives 
and  enjoys  a  larger  portion  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labor  than 
any  mere  laborer  in  Europe,  every  thing  legally  belongs 
to  the  master.  There  are  no  family  interests  for  which 
to  provide,  no  reputation  or  character  to  protect,  no  social 
duties  to  perform,  or  rights  to. defend  in  his  case;  in  short, 
he  has  no  connection  whatever  with  that  vast  and  com- 
plicated machinery  which  we  call  society.  Marriage,  there- 
fore, from  our  stand-point — that  legal  formula  and  social 
pledge  so  vital  to  the  very  existence  of  social  01  ler — is  obvi- 
ously absurd  and  impossible  in  the  case  of  egroes.  The 
natural  affinity,  the  union  of  affection,  the  perfect  adaptation 
so  essential  to  a  true  marriage  in  our  race,  is  substantially  imi- 
tated and  substantially  similar  in  the  case  of  negroes  at  the 
South,  but  to  seek  to  force  the  negro  beyond  this — to  force 
upon  him  the  social  responsibilities  that  attach  to  white  peo- 
ple; or,  in  other  words,  to  make  marriage  a  legal  contract  in 
the  case  of  negroes,  would  be  as  absurd  as  to  force  him  to 
vote  at  an  election,  or  to  perform  any  other  high  social  duties, 
and  which  are  evidently  impossible.  In  regard  to  his  own 
wants,  the  well-being  of  his  offspring,  every  thing  connected 
with  the  best  welfare  and  highest  happiness  that  his  race  is 
capable  of,  he  now  enjoys,  and  any  attempt  to  force  him  to 
marry  as  white  people  marry — that  is,  to  make  marriage  a 
civil  or  legal  contract — is  not  merely  impossible,  but  it  would 
be  a  crime  and  a  monstrous  outrage  upon  the  nature  God  has 
given  him.  The  Almighty  has  endowed  the  negro  with  won- 
derful imitative  powers :  of  course,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to 


MAEEIAGK.  241 

imitate  all  our  higher  qualities — he  can  only  approximate  to 
them — but  when  the  master  has  presented  him  with  a  proper 
example,  in  this  respect  as  well  as  in  other  respects,  as  parents 
and  guardians  are  expected  to  do  in  the  case  of  children,  they 
have  fulfilled  their  duties  to  these  "  slaves,"  and  generally  the 
negro  is  restrained  and  governed  by  these  examples.  But  the 
feeble  and  capricious  affections  of  the  negro  give  their  masters 
much  annoyance,  and  perhaps  the  greatest  trouble  they  expe- 
rience with  these  people  is  their  faithlessness  to  their  marital 
obligations.  The  ignorant  "  anti-slavery"  lecturer  at  the  North 
has  distressing  tales  to  tell  of  cruel  masters  who  separate  wives 
and  husbands,  and  break  up  families ;  but  while  such  things 
have  doubtless  happened,  it  is  quite  certain  that  masters  have 
interfered  a  hundred  times  to  keep  them  together  to  one 
instance  to  the  contrary,  or  to  sell  them  apart.  Such  things 
happen  occasionally,  when  estates  are  to  be  settled  and  prop- 
erty divided ;  but  the  instincts  of  the  whites  and  the  happi- 
ness of  the  whites  are  more  disturbed  by  them  than  the  negroes 
themselves.  The  limited  intellectual  power — the  feeble  moral 
nature,  and  superficial  and  capricious  affections  of  the  negro 
lead  him  to  regard  these  separations  of  wives  and  husbands — 
of  parents  and  children,  with  indifference,  or  rather  we  should 
say  he  has  none  of  our  perceptions  or  our  instincts  in  respect 
to  these  family  relations,  and  therefore  when  they  do  happen 
he  is  relatively  or  comparatively  unconscious  of  suffering.  In 
his  native  Africa  he  sells  his  wife  and  children  without  hesita- 
tion, and  all  the  suffering  he  now  feels  is  borrowed  or  imita- 
ted from  the  whites — a  feeling  scarcely  perceptible  in  his  native 
state,  but  in  his  better  and  higher  life  at  the  South,  it  is  doubt- 
less exalted  into  something  like  a  sentiment  of  family.  Never- 
theless, he  readily  adapts  himself  to  whatever  changes  the 
chances  of  life  may  bring  him,  and  where  the  white  husband, 
and  certainly  the  white  wife,  might  despair  and  die,  the  negro 

11 


242  MARRIAGE. 

and  the  negress,  with  new  partners  and  another  marriage,  are 
quite  as  happy  as  if  they  had  never  been  separated  from  then* 
former  ones. 

But  these  things  are  exceptional,  and  husbands  and  wives 
are  doubtless  far  less  frequently  forced  apart  by  these  accidents 
of  society  than  are  the  wives  and  husbands  of  the  "  lower 
orders"  in  England  by  the  pressure  of  want  and  that  necessity 
of  self-preservation  which  so  often  rends  them  asunder.  The 
real  trouble,  however,  as  has  been  said,  is  in  the  negro  himself 
— his  feeble  and  capricious  affections — substantially  similar  to 
those  of  white  childhood,  and  which  it  requires  the  constant  su- 
pervision and  influence  of  the  master  to  restrain  so  as  to  keep 
them  faithful  to  each  other.  The  limited  mental  endowment 
and  the  feeble  moral  perceptions  of  the  negro  render  him  in- 
capable, in  these  respects,  of  little  beyond  the  fulfilment  of  the 
universal  command  to  "  increase  and  multiply."  White  hus- 
bands and  wives,  when  one  dies  in  early  life,  often  remain 
unmarried,  faithful  to  a  memory  forever ;  and  still  more  fre- 
quently, perhaps,  the  affections  that  bound  them  together  in 
their  youth  remain  bright  and  untarnished  in  age  and  to  the 
borders  of  the  grave.  Such  a  thing  never  happened  with  a 
negro.  Not  one  of  the  countless  millions  that  have  lived  upon 
the  earth  was  ever  kept  from  marrying  a  second  time  by  a 
sentiment  or  a  memory.  With  their  limited  moral  endowment 
such  a  thing  is  an  absolute  moral  impossibility.  They  live 
with  each  other  to  extreme  old  age,  because  they  imitate  the 
superior  race,  and  because  it  has  become  a  habit,  perhaps,  but 
the  grand  purposes  of  nature  accomplished,  there  is  little  or 
nothing  more,  or  of  those  blessed  memories  of  joy  and  suffer- 
ing— of  early  hope  and  chastened  sorrows,  which  so  bind  and 
blend  together  the  white  husband  and  wife,  and  often  render 
them  quite  as  necessary  to  each  other's  happiness  as  in  the 
flush  and  vigor  of  youth.     Affection  for  his  master  is,  in  fact, 


MARRIAGE.  243 

the  strongest,  and  it  may  be  said  to  be  the  only  enduring  affec- 
tion of  the  negro  nature,  for  it  remains  an  ever-present  feeling 
long  after  the  feeble  and  capricious  ".family  sentiment,"  or 
love  of  wife  and  offspring,  is  entirely  obliterated  from  his 
memory.  Marriage  of  "  Southern  slaves"  thus  briefly  pre- 
sented, will  be  seen  to  be  as  real,  decent,  orderly,  and  natural, 
as  the  nature  of  the  negro  admits  of,  or  relatively  speaking,  as 
the  Almighty  Creator  himself  has  designed  or  decreed.  He 
has  endowed  the  negro  Avith  different  and  vastly  subordinate 
moral  wants  and  affections,  but  at  the  same  time  given  him  an 
imitative  capacity  that  enables  him  to  copy  the  higher  nature 
and  more  exalted  habitudes  of  the  superior  race.  They  there- 
fore many  as  white  people  marry,  with  the  same  forms  and  the 
same  ceremonies,  and  such  a  thing  as  polygamy,  or  what  the 
"Abolitionist"  calls  concubinage,  is  utterly  unknown  among 
these  people.  They  are  no  portion  or  part  of  society,  have  no 
place  in  the  social  compact,  they  are  unable  to  fulfil  its  duties, 
and  therefore  have  none  of  its  rights,  hence  legal  marriage  is 
obviously  absurd  and  impossible.  To  the  ignorant  Abolition 
writer  it  may  seem  quite  plain  that  marriage  should  be  a  civil 
contract  with  negroes  as  well  as  white  people,  for  his  theory 
that  the  negro  is  a  black  Caucasian,  neutralizes  all  difficulties  in 
this  as  in  other  things.  But  even  they  must  see  that  to  force 
them  on  the  same  social  level  in  this  vital  respect  must  neces- 
sarily involve  social  equality  in  all  other  respects — a  result,  un- 
less their  theory  be  sound,  obviously  unnatural,  monstrous,  and 
wicked.  The  negro,  isolated  in  his  native  Africa,  is  at  this 
moment  exactly  what  he  was  four  thousand  years  ago,  selling 
his  wives  and  offspring  with  as  utter  disregard  of  marital  re- 
lations, and  unconsciousness  of  a  family  sentiment,  as  in  the 
time  of  the  Pharaohs ;  and  when  we  contrast  these  things — ■ 
the  universal  polygamy,  the  trade  in  wives,  the  caprice  and 
savagisrn  of  the  lawless  husband  or  master  with  the  decent  and 


244  MARRIAGE. 

Christian  marriage  of  "  Southern  slaves,'-  imitated  from  the 
superior  race,  and  generally  restrained  by  its  example,  may  we 
not  say  with  entire  reverence  and  truth,  that  marriage,  as  it 
now  actually  exists  among  these  people  at  the  South,  being  all 
that  their  natures  are  capable  of,  and  all  that  their  wants  and 
their  highest  happiness  demand,  is  also,  and  of  necessity,  all 
that  God  Himself  has  decreed  or  designed  in  respect  to  this 
race  ? 

There  is  no  other  comparison  to  make,  or  contrast  to  pre- 
sent, but  that  of  African  savagism;  for  that  modern  product 
of  a  world-wide  delusion,  "  freedom,"  or  free  negroism,  as 
shown  elsewhere,  is  a  social  abnormalism,  a  diseased  condition, 
that  necessarily  ends  in  extinction ;  and  unless  it  can  be  proven 
that  disease  is  preferable  to  health,  and  death  itself  a  greater 
good  than  life,  no  argument  or  proof  drawn  from  it  is  legiti- 
mate or  allowable, 


CHAPTER    XX. 

CLIMATIC   AND   INDUSTRIAL   ADAPTATION. 

The  surface  of  the  earth  is  naturally  divided  into  zones  or 
centres  of  existence.  These  great  centres  of  creation  have 
each  their  Fauna  and  Flora,  their  animal  and  vegetable  life 
peculiar  to  themselves  alone.  Geographical  writers  use  these 
terms,  and  speak  of  the  temperate,  frigid,  and  torrid  zones, 
etc.,  as  mere  designations  of  certain  portions  of  the  earth 
where  the  climate  is  widely  varied ;  but  this  is  very  subordi- 
nate to  the  real  differences  that  separate  the  great  centres  of 
organic  life.  All  creatures,  indeed  all  organic  and  living  things, 
have  their  centres  of  existence,  their  local  habitations,  their 
places  in  the  mighty  programme  of  creation.  They  are  all 
adapted  to  these  great  centres  of  life — their  organic  structure, 
their  faculties,  and  the  purposes  they  were  designed  to  fulfil, 
all  harmonizing  with  their  localities,  the  positions  the  Almighty 
has  assigned  to  them.  There  are  approximating  forms  of  life, 
certain  genera  nmong  animals  and  plants,  that  may  be  said  to 
belong  to  the  same  family  or  group,  but  which  are  found  in 
different  zones  or  centres  of  existence,  but  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  the  same  species  being  found  in  more  than  one  centre 
of  creation.  All  the  animals  and  plants  of  Europe  are,  there- 
fore, different  from  those  of  America,  as  all  the  creatures  that 
belong  to  the  northern  region  of  this  continent  are  specifically 
different  from  those  of  the  tropics. 

Each  and  every  specific  creation  is  different  from  every  other 
specific  existence,  and  differs  just  as  widely  in  the  circumstances 


246      CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

that  surround  it,  and  to  which  it  is  adapted,  as  it  does  in  its 
own  organic  structure.  If  an  animal,  for  example,  it  has  a 
special  structure  with  special  instincts,  qualities,  etc.,  and  the 
external  circumstances,  the  climate,  the  vegetation,  all  things 
are  in  perfect  harmony.  This  law  may  be  said  to  be  universal, 
for  the  few  seeming  exceptions  scarcely  deserve  notice.  There 
are  a  few  plants  and  cereals  suited  to  all  climates.  The  potato, 
of  American  origin,  is  cultivated  with  equal  success  in  Europe, 
while  most  of  our  ordinary  vegetables  are  of  European  origin. 
Wheat  grows  with  equal  luxuriance  in  the  Valley  of  the  Nile, 
the  table  lands  of  Mexico,  and  the  great  Northwest.  But 
while  all  of  these  things,  and  many  more,  are  thus  capable  of 
successful  cultivation  in  different  localities  from  those  in  which 
they  were  originally  created,  the  external  conditions  must  be 
preserved — the  same  or  similar  soil,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
the  same  climate  or  the  same  heat  and  moisture  are  essential 
in  their  cultivation.  This  is  also  generally  true  of  animals. 
Our  domestic  animals  are  all  suited  to  different  climates.  The 
horse,  dog,  ox,  sheep,  etc.,  are  of  European  origin — some  of 
them  Asiatic — and  they  live  and  multiply  with  equal  certainty 
under  the  fervid  suns  of  the  tropics,  or  amid  the  icy  blasts  of 
the  extreme  North.  They  are  striking  exceptions,  however, 
to  the  general  law  which  adapts  all  creatures  to  their  own 
centres  of  existence,  and,  it  would  seem,  were  designed  by  the 
Almighty  and  beneficent  Creator  for  the  especial  purpose  of 
benefiting  man.  They  have  accompanied  him  in  all  his  wander- 
ings, especially  the  dog  and  horse,  shared  his  fortunes,  aided  in 
fighting  his  battles,  and  however  subordinate,  played  an  im- 
portant role  in  the  civilization  of  mankind.  They  are  closely 
associated  in  this  capacity  for  resisting  external  circumstances 
with  man  himself,  that  is,  the  Caucasian,  or  master  man,  who, 
as  regards  mere  climate,  is  capable  of  living  and  of  enjoying 
the  healthy  development  of  all  his  faculties  in  all  climates  alike, 


CLIMATIC     iND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.      247 

unless,  perhaps,  the  polar  regions,  or  extreme  North.  As  a 
general  law,  all  creatures,  as  they  ascend  in  the  scale  of  being, 
become  less  and  less  subject  to  external  influences  ;  but  some 
of  our  domestic  animals  are  certainly  exceptions,  for  the  dog 
and  horse,  at  all  events,  are  capable  of  living  where  the  negro, 
and  possibly  the  Mongol,  would  surely  become  extinct.  The 
same  general  laws  of  climate  affect  the  human  races,  not  exactly 
similarly,  of  course,  but  approximatively  as  they  do  animals, 
and  with  a  certain  modification,  as  they  do  plants — that  is, 
they  have  all  centres  of  existence  to  which  they  are  specifically 
adapted,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the  Caucasian,  as  some  of 
our  domestic  animals,  and  indeed  some  vegetable  existences 
are  exceptions.  The  white  man,  as  has  been  said,  can  exist 
everywhere,  where  life  of  any  kind  is  possible,  except  the  ex- 
treme North,  and  even  here,  as  shown  by  Kane  and  other 
explorers  in  those  bleak  and  barren  regions,  by  proper  precau- 
tions, or  by  complying  with  certain  conditions,  life  is  possible 
for  certain  periods.  He  is,  doubtless,  designed  for  the  temper- 
ate latitudes,  industrially  considered,  but,  as  regards  climate, 
he  is  at  home  everywhere.  Writers,  ignorant  of  the  laws  of 
climate,  and  indeed  ignorant  of  the  specific  character  of  races, 
have  supposed  that  they  become  weak,  effete,  and  imbecile  in 
tropical  latitudes,  and  this  notion  is,  perhaps,  very  generally 
entertained  by  otherwise  intelligent  people.  The  population 
found  in  these  regions  are  negro,  Indian,  or  Malay,  intermixed 
often  with  white  blood,  and  these  inferior  people  are  supposed 
to  be  a  result  of  climate,  and  to  exhibit  the  natural  conse- 
quences of  a  warm  and  enervating  atmosphere  !  The  white 
man  under  the  equator,  living,  or  rather  attempting  to  live,  the 
life  of  the  negro — to  labor  under  the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun — 
would  rapidly  decline  and  die,  for  his  organic  structure  could 
not  resist  the  external  influences  that  tend  to  destroy  him. 
The  malaria  springing  from  the  decomposition  of  the  rank 


248      CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

vegetation,  which  ascends  in  the  early  portion  and  descends  to 
the  earth  in  the  later  portion  of  the  day,  would  soon  poison 
all  the  springs  of  life,  and  fever  would  close  the  scene.  Any 
attempt  at  labor  in  midday  would  be  still  more  rapidly  fatal, 
for  the  caloric  generated  by  the  exertion,  without  an  excretory 
system  to  relieve  it,  would  end  in  fatal  congestions  of  the 
vital  organs,  especially  the  brain.  We  constantly  witness  an 
approximation  to  this  in  our  Western  States  and  Territories, 
where  nearly  a  generation  voluntarily  sacrifice  themselves  in 
the  effort  of  preparing  comfortable  homes  for  their  offspring. 
But  after  a  certain  progress  is  made,  the  causes  of  disease  sub- 
side, and  the  temperate  climate  enables  them  to  labor  at  all 
times. 

But  while  the  white  man  is  forever  forbidden  by  the  laws 
of  his  physical  nature  to  labor,  or  by  his  own  hands  to  grow 
the  natural  products  of  the  tropics,  he  can  live  there,  and  en- 
joy all  his  faculties  of  mind  and  body  with  the  same  certainty 
and  success  that  belong  to  the  temperate  latitudes.  It  may  be 
that  the  temptations  to  indulgence,  to  voluptuousness,  or  to 
the  gratification  of  the  animal  appetites,  are  greater  in  these 
warm  and  glowing  climes,  but  surely  no  more  so  than  in  our  own 
summers,  compared  with  the  winter  or  other  less  attractive 
seasons.  On  the  contrary,  the  necessities  of  cleanliness  and 
the  less  potent  demand  for  stimulants,  with  the  cooling  and 
delicious  fruits  of  the  tropics,  tend  to  delicacy  of  tastes  and 
appetites.  At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the  grossest,  most 
brutal,  and  most  immoral  populations  of  Europe  are  found  in 
the  far  north,  while  those  of  southern  Europe  are  the  most 
temperate  and  the  most  delicate  in  their  habitudes  of  any  peo- 
ple in  the  world.  But  climate  has  little,  if  any,  influence  in 
these  respects.  The  white  man  under  the  same  circumstances 
is  the  same  being,  and  his  grossness  and  immoralitj',  or  his  del- 
icacy, temperance,  and  morality,  are  things  of  chance,  accord- 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.    2-49 

ing  as  lie  hi  ■  i  educated,  and  circumstances,  public  and 

private,  ha  1  his  character.     As  a  master,  as  the  guide 

and  protector  of  die  subordinate  negro,  he  may  live  wherever 
the  latter  can,  otherwise  the  negro  would  have  been  created 
in  vain — a  blank  hi  the  economy  of  the  universe,  a  contradiction 
in  the  designs  of  Providence,  and  a  blotch  on  the  fair  form  of 
creation.  Generally  speaking,  climate  or  other  external  cir- 
cumstances have  influence  over  the  life,  either  human  or  ani- 
mal, according  as  they  are  low  in  the  scale  of  being,  and 
therefore  while  the  Caucasian  man  can  live  and  enjoy  the  full 
development  of  all  his  powers  in  the  tropics,  the  negro  and 
other  inferior  races  are  absolutely  limited  to  their  own  centres  of 
existence.  The  Mongols  have  been  confined  to  those  portions 
of  Asia  where  they  now  exist,  ever  since  known  to  history,  foi 
though  in  the  mighty  invasions  of  Genghis  Khan,  Tamerlane, 
and  others,  when  millious  of  them  spread  like  a  flood  over  other 
regions,  and  even  as  far  as  Chalons,  in  France,  they  almost  as 
rapidly  receded,  and  are  now  just  where  history  first  found  them. 
The  modern  slave-trade,  carried  on  so  extensively  by  the 
English  of  our  day,  where  these  people,  under  various  pre- 
texts, are  placed  aboai'd  ships  and  sent  to  Jamaica,  and  other 
West  Indian  Islands,  to  supply  the  place  of  the  abandoned 
negro,  must  be  a  far  greater  wrong  than  the  importation  of 
negroes  from  Africa,  for  it  is  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  climate 
that  must  rapidly  destroy  them,  while  in  the  case  of  the  negro 
he  is  still  within  that  centre  of  existence,  where  God  himself 
placed  him.  The  Malay,  too,  is  in  his  own  centre  of  life,  and 
like  all  the  inferior  races,  never  migrates  from  it.  The  Esqui- 
maux, buried  in  the  bleak  and  desolate  North,  never  ventures 
beyond  it,  and  should  he  be  carried  into  the  tropics  by  the 
white  man,  would  doubtless  soon  succumb  under  its  burning 
suns.  We  know  but  little  of  the  Indian  or  aboriginal  in  these 
respects.     They  now  constitute  the  industrial  forces  of  Mex« 

11* 


250   CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

ico,  and,except  Brazil,of  all  South  America.  There  are  some  tev 
millions  of  them,  and  as  we  know  that  the  negro  never  can 
labor  on  the  table-lands,  or  live  at  all  in  an  atmosphere  several 
thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  it  may  become  a  ques- 
tion of  immense  importance  to  the  civilization  of  this  conti- 
nent to  determine  the  natural  position  and  our  true  relations  to 
this  race.  The  negro,  more  distinctly,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
race,  is  limited  to  his  centres  of  life.  If  Dr.  Kane  had  taken 
any  with  him  in  his  Northwest  explorations,  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  they  could  have  lived  through  it,  if  of  pure  ne- 
gro type.  His  organic  structure,  while  as  perfectly  adapted  to 
a  tropical  climate  as  the  eye  is  to  sight  or  any  other  organism 
to  a  given  purpose  or  function,  utterly  forbids  him  to  live  be- 
yond a  certain  latitude.  An  individual  may  do  so,  of  course, 
or  a  generation  or  more  may  linger  out  a  miserable  existence, 
but  his  structure  forbids  that  he  should  multiply  himself  or  be- 
come a  permanent  resident  in  the  extreme  north.  There  aio 
great  numbers  in  Canada,  the  result  of  that  wide- spread  igno- 
rance of  his  true  nature  that  has  worked  out  such  tremendous 
evils  to  these  poor  people  as  well  as  to  the  deluded  and  mis- 
taken whites.  Their  situation  in  Canada  is  the  most  misera- 
ble, perhaps,  that  human  beings  can  possibly  endure.  It  would 
be  miserable  enough  if  they  had  masters,  guides,  protectors, 
and  providers  for  their  wants,  but,  without  these,  with  none  of 
the  external  circumstances  with  which  God  surrounded  them 
when  He  first  called  them  into  being,  and  then  left  to  compete 
with  white  men  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  it  is  repeated 
that  their  condition  must  be  the  most  deplorable  to  which  un- 
happy human  creatures  could  be  subjected.  The  constant  ac- 
cession to  their  numbers  through  the  Underground  Railroad 
renders  any  thing  like  an  estimate  of  the  fatality  among  them 
quite  out  of  the  question,  but  "rchen,  in  addition  to  their  ab- 
normal social  condition,  there  is  the  pressure  of  an  unnatural 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.    251 

climate  or  of  external  influences  utterly  opposite  to  those  that 
God  originally  provided  for  them,  and  directly  in  conflict  with 
their  organic  structure,  then  it  is  obvious,  of  course,  that  they 
must  perish  rapidly. 

All  those  physicians  in  the  North  who  have  had  any  expe- 
rience of  the  diseases  of  these  people,  know  the  tendencies  to 
consumption  or  disease  of  the  respiratory  organs  so  common, 
almost  universal  among  them,  but  few  if  any  have  known  that 
this  was  a  necessary  result  of  the  peculiar  structure  of  the 
negro.  His  entire  surface  is  studded  with  innumerable  se- 
baceous glands,  which  are  the  safety-valves  that  nature  has 
provided  for  relieving  his  system  from  the  action  of  vertical 
suns,  but  these  rendered  torpid,  indeed  incapable  of  perform- 
ing their  functions  in  the  icy  atmosphere  of  the  North,  con- 
gestion and  disease  of  the  lungs  necessarily  follows.  Almost 
every  one  has  seen  negroes  in  Northern  cities,  who  have  lost 
their  legs  by  frost  at  sea — a  thing  rarely  witnessed  among 
whites,  and  yet  where  a  single  negro  has  been  thus  exposed, 
doubtless  a  thousand  of  the  former  have.  Climate,  therefore, 
has  a  fixed  and  absolute  control  over  the  existence  of  the 
negro.  God  has  adapted  him,  both  in  his  physical  and  men- 
tal structure,  to  the  tropics,  and  though  he  can  live  in  the  tem- 
perate latitudes,  his  welfare,  his  happiness,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  his  faculties  are  secured  just  as  he  conforms  to  the 
designs  of  the  Almighty,  as  written  in  his  organism,  and  lives 
within  the  centre  of  existence  where  he  was  created.  And 
those  ignorant  and  terribly  mistaken  people  who  have  seduced 
and  led  him  into  the  bleak  and  forbidden  North,  have  uncon- 
sciously committed  a  crime  that  would  appall  them  if  they 
could  truly  comprehend  it. 

Such  are,  briefly,  the  more  prominent  laws  of  climate,  and 
their  influence  on  men  and  animals ;  but  as  climate  itself,  in 
the  ordinary  meaning  of  the  word,  has  regard  only  to  degrees 


252     CLIMATIC     AND     INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION. 

of  latitude,  or  to  modifications  of  heat  and  cold,  they  are  of 
secondaiy  importance,  or,  at  most,  are  only  a  portion  of  those 
general  laws  of  adaptation  which  govern  animal  existence,  and 
harmonize  it  with  the  locality  in  which  it  was  originally  created. 
Beyond  the  few  exceptions  referred  to,  all  organic  existence 
is  adapted  to  its  own  centre  of  life,  and  incapable  of  living  in 
any  other.  This  is  illustrated  every  day,  and  familiar  to  the 
least  observing  among  us.  Cereals  and  vegetables  of  every 
kind  demand,  if  not  always  a  special  climate,  certainly  a  spe- 
cial soil.  Corn,  wheat,  etc.,  require  a  soil  suited  to  them — 
there  must  be  a  special  adaptation  of  external  circumstances, 
for  there  is  an  eternal  relation  between  the  organism  and  the 
circumstances  that  surround  it.  The  most  ignorant  among 
our  agriculturists  know  froni  their  own  experience  that  cer- 
tain things  can  only  grow  on  certain  soils,  and  this  fixed  and 
indestructible  law,  thus  manifested  in  the  simpler  forms  of 
being,  pervades  the  whole  organic  world.  And,  as  remarked, 
it  is  in  exceptional  instances,  or  the  instances  where  climate 
does  not  govern,  that  these  adaptations  to  particular  soils  are 
essential.  In  general,  it  can  not  be  transplanted  or  removed 
from  its  own  centre  of  existence.  The  products  of  the  tropics 
■ — the  sugar  cane,  coffee,  indigo,  cotton,  etc.,  the  numerous 
fruits,  etc.,  can  not  be  changed,  or,  at  all  events,  can  not  be 
grown  successfully  outside  of  their  original  centre  of  creation. 
As  we  ascend  in  the  scale,  the  laws  of  adaptation,  are,  of  course, 
multiplied,  or  become  more  elaborate,  and  in  the  case  of  human 
beings,  they  are  widely  diversified  with  numerous  secondary 
relations ;  but  the  great  universal  and  all-dominating  law  that 
unites  men  to  their  centres  of  existence,  is  as  indestructible 
and  everlasting  as  it  is  in  the  simplest  form  of  vegetable  exis- 
tence. God  has  created  both  them  and  the  external  circum- 
stances, has  given  them  a  specific  structure  and  corresponding 
faculties,  and  He  has  made  the  earth,  the  soils,  the  form  of  its 


CLIMATIC     AND     INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION.    253 

products,  its  climate,  etc.,  in  perfect  accord  with  the  former, 
and  as  time  and  chance,  or  human  forces,  can  never  change  or 
modify  the  works  of  the  Almighty,  this  law  of  adaptation  is 
everlasting. 

The  white  man — as  a  laborer — is  adapted  to  the  temperate 
latitudes,  not  because  mere  climate,  or  heat  and  cold,  demand 
it,  but  because  such  is  his  natural  adaptation.  All  the  exter 
nal  circumstances  accord  with  his  nature — his  physical  struc- 
ture and  his  intellectual  endowments.  The  soil,  its  natural 
products — the  time  and  mode  of  their  growth,  their  ripening  or 
maturity,  in  short,  their  cultivation  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
his  faculties.  The  farmer  of  Ohio  or  Illinois,  for  example, 
ploughs  and  prepares  his  fields  through  the  early  summer,  for 
sowing  them  with  wheat  in  the  early  autumn.  The  process  is 
elaborate.  The  land  must  be  manured,  ploughed  carefully  at 
different  times,  harrowed  over  at  intervals,  and  gradually 
made  ready  for  the  reception  of  the  seed.  Then  he  carefully 
selects  that  which  his  experience  assures  him  is  best.  After  it 
is  sown  he  again  harrows  over  his  fields,  watches  them  care- 
fully for  several  months,  and  then,  the  crop  having  ripened,  an- 
other process  begins. 

This  is  equally  elaborate  and  demands  the  fullest  exercise 
of  his  mental  faculties  as  well  as  the  labor  of  his  body.  He 
must  watch  and  judge  of  the  weather,  when  he  shall  gather 
in  his  crops,  how  dispose  of  them,  etc. ;  then  comes  the  thresh- 
ing, the  separation  of  the  grain,  etc.,  the  disposal  of  the  straw, 
the  feeding  of  his  stock,  all  again  needing  the  fullest  exercise 
of  all  his  highest  faculties.  Then,  again,  begins  another  pro- 
cess— if  not  personal  or  where  he  himself  is  the  leading  party, 
where  men  like  himself  or  with  the  same  faculties  as  himself 
are  associated  with  him  and  engaged  in  completing  the  pro- 
cess which  he  began.  That  which  he  planted  and  gathered  is 
now  still  more  elaborately  manipulated.    The  wheat  is  changed 


254    CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

into  flour  by  a  lengthened  and  elaborate  process,  and  then  pass- 
ing through  another  elaboration,  it  becomes  bread — the  sus- 
tenance of  the  race,  the  natural  food  of  the  millions,  the  legi- 
timate result  of  a  healthy  exercise  of  his  specific  faculties  and 
of  the  industrial  adaptation  of  the  race.  Beginning  with  the 
selection  of  the  land,  its  preparation,  the  selection,  etc.,  of  the 
seed,  the  planting,  the  care  and  estimate  of  the  weather,  the 
ripening,  the  gathering,  the  separation  of  the  grain,  the  trans- 
format-ion  into  flour,  the  still  greater  change  iuto  bread,  in  the 
entire  process,  from  the  occupation  of  the  land  to  the  moment 
when  placed  on  the  table  of  his  household,  the  tout  ensemble 
needs  and  calls  into  action  the  highest  faculties  of  reasoning 
and  comparison,  and  however  uneducated  or  ignorant  the  in- 
dividual may  seem,  when  compared  with  the  man  of  books, 
the  process,  or  rather  processes,  would  be  impossible,  of  course, 
to  any  race  except  our  own,  or  to  beings  with  capacities  in- 
ferior to  those  of  the  white  man. 

It  is  the  same  with  all  the  other  products  common  or  indi- 
genous to  temperate  latitudes.  They  all  demand  the  highest 
capacities  for  their  cultivation.  The  nature  of  the  soils,  the 
fitness  of  particular  products  to  particular  soils,  the  periods  of 
growth,  of  ripening,  the  influences  of  the  atmosphere,  the 
action  of  heat  and  cold,  the  change  of  seasons,  etc.,  are  all  in 
harmony  with  the  elevated  faculties,  while  the  result,  their 
cultivation  and  uses,  are  all  essential  to  the  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  the  white  man.  The  industrial  adaptation  is  complete, 
the  varying  soils,  often  widely  different  on  the  same  farm,  the 
numerous  regulations,  the  multiplied  relations  and  connections 
involved,  the  changing  seasons  and  complicated  circumstances 
render  the  temperate  latitudes  as  absolutely  the  centre  of  life  to 
the  white  man,  industrially  considered,  as  the  tropics  are  to  the 
negro,  or  as  any  of  the  simpler  forms  of  being  are  to  the  local- 
ities in  which  we  find  them.     The  industrial  and  specific)  adap- 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.    255 

tation  of  the  negro  to  his  own  centre  of  life  is,  however,  more 
palpable  and  demonstrable,  for  his  limited  intelligence  and 
more  direct  relations  to  external  circumstances  enable  us  to 
grasp  the  facts  involved  more  readily.  The  soil  of  the  tropics 
has  little  variation,  and  rarely  needs  any  manure  or  prepara- 
tion like  those  of  temperate  latitudes.  And  the  indigenous 
products,  those  that  need  care  and  labor  for  their  cultivation, 
however  luxuriant  their  growth,  are  few  in  number.  There 
are  almost  innumerable  species  of  fruits  that  grow  spontane- 
ously, and  indeed  a  great  number  of  plants  that  are  nutritious, 
which  need  no  care  or  labor,  and  which  the  negro,  in  his  iso- 
lated or  barbarous  state,  lives  on  to  a  great  extent.  But  the 
great  natural  products  of  the  tropics,  those  that  are  essential 
to  human  welfare,  which  are  at  this  instant  the  most  impor- 
tant elements  of  modern  commerce,  and  are  vitally  affecting 
the  civilization  of  our  times,  are  few  in  number,  and  need  only 
the  lowest  grade  of  intelligence  for  their  cultivation.  Cotton, 
for  example,  needs  but  little  beyond  planting  and  picking,  and 
sugar,  so  far  as  the  labor  is  concerned,  is  even  more  simple. 
It  is  true,  in  the  complete  elaboration  and  final  perfection  of 
these  products,  the  manufacture,  etc.,  the  highest  order  of  in- 
telligence is  called  into  action,  but  this  has  no  necessary  con- 
nection with  the  negro.  Cotton  is  shipped  to  the  North  or 
Europe,  and  passes  altogether  into  other  hands,  and  though  the 
negro  labor  was  vital  in  the  preliminary  stages,  it  has  no  more 
connection  with  the  ultimate  disposition  of  this  material  than 
the  labor  of  mules  that  were  employed  to  prepare  the  earth 
for  its  original  cultivation.  Coffee,  tobacco,  indigo,  etc.,  are 
all  equally  simple,  all  in  accord  with  the  simple  soils,  the  uni- 
form atmosphere,  the  primitive  laws  of  development,  as  they 
may  be  termed,  and  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  grade  of  in- 
telligence, the  specific  nature  and  industrial  adaptation  of  the 
negro. 


256      CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

Ilis  physical  organism  is  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  these 
products  as  perfectly  as  is  his  grade  of  intelligence.  His  head 
is  protected  from  the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun  by  a  dense  mat  of 
woolly  hair,  wholly  impervious  to  its  fiercest  heats,  while  his 
entire  surface,  studded  with  innumerable  sebaceous  glands, 
forming  a  complete  excretory  system,  relieves  him  from  all 
those  climatic  influences  so  fatal,  under  the  same  circumstances, 
to  the  sensitive  and  highly  organized  white  man.  Instead  of 
seeking  to  shelter  himself  from  the  burning  sun  of  the  tropics, 
he  courts  it,  enjoys  it,  delights  in  its  fiercest  heats,  and  malaria 
— that  deadly  poison  to  the  white  man,  which,  in  the  form  of 
yellow  fever,  has  swept  from  existence  vast  multitudes  of  our 
race,  is  as  harmless  to  the  negro  organism  as  the  balmy  breezes 
of  May  or  June  to  the  organization  of  the  white  man.  Of 
course  mulattoes  and  mongrels  may  have  something  that  ap- 
proximates to  the  yellow  fever  of  the  white  man,  but  to  the 
negro  it  is  simply  an  organic  impossibility.  His  faculties,  his 
simple  grade  of  intelligence,  his  physical  organism,  his  specific, 
climatic,  and  industrial  adaptations  are  therefore  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  the  primitive  soils,  the  simple  products,  and  uni- 
form atmosphere  of  the  tropics,  and  in  complete  relation  and 
perfect  union  with  the  circumstances  that  surround  him  in  the 
centre  of  existence  where  the  Almighty  has  placed  him. 

The  late  Daniel  Webster  once  declared  that  God  had  limited 
"  slavery"  to  certain  climates,  and  that  he,  at  least,  would  not 
"  reenact  the  will  of  God,"  and  this  declaration,  though  as  a 
form  of  speech  absurd  enough,  was  certainly  hi  close  neighbor 
hood  to  a  great  and  vital  truth.  If  he  had  said  that  the 
Almighty  had  adapted  the  negro  to  certain  climates,  he  would 
have  expressed  just  what  we  are  now  considering;  but  the 
relation  of  the  negro  to  the  white  man,  the  thing  he  called 
slavery,  is,  of  course,  as  proper  and  as  natural  in  New  York  01 
Ohio  as  in  Mississippi.    The  vulgar  notion,  therefore,  that 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.      257 

"  slave  labor,"  the  industrial  capacities  of  the  negro,  is  unpro- 
fitable in  temperate  latitudes  is  only  partially  true.  The 
"  slave"  relation,  the  normal  condition,  as  contrasted  with  the 
so-called  free  negro,  presents  just  the  difference  between  a  use- 
ful negro  and  a  worthless  negro,  or  a  negro  who  adds  to  the 
productive  forces  of  a  State,  and  one  who  lives  on  the  State— 
a  healthy  and  a  diseased  social  element,  and  therefore  wherever 
found,  if,  indeed,  in  the  extreme  North,  it  is  simply  absurd  to 
speak  of  the  former  as  unprofitable  when  contrasted  with  the 
latter.  But  when  the  negro  is  contrasted  with  the  white  man 
in  Ohio  or  New  York,  then  the  whole  subject  is  changed. 
His  industrial  capacities  are  incompetent  to  grow  the  indige- 
nous products  of  the  temperate  latitudes. 

The  reasoning,  the  reflection,  the  elevated  faculties  called 
into  action,  that  are  absolutely  essential  to  the  cultivation  of 
their  products,  the  varying  and  complicated  soils,  their  elabo- 
rate preparation,  the  care  and  judgment  needed  in  gathering 
them,  etc.,  the  still  more  elaborate  processes  before  they  are 
rendered  fit  for  human  sustenance,  all  this  needs  the  high  in- 
telligence, and  therefore  the  large  brain,  of  the  white  man,  and 
to  the  isolated  negro  is  impossible,  of  course. 

It  is  true,  the  master  may  guide  them,  and  the  owner  of  a 
hundred  negroes  in  Ohio  may  carry  on  these  processes  and 
cultivate  the  soils  of  the  Western  and  Middle  States  some- 
times, perhaps,  when  all  labor  is  scarce,  with  tolerable  success. 
But  their  inferiority,  their  lower  grade  of  intelligence,  the  time 
and  trouble  expended  in  this  guidance,  must  be  so  palpable  to 
every  one  who  reflects  a  moment,  that  the  case  only  needs  to 
be  stated  to  convince  them  of  the  relative  worthlessness  of  this 
labor.  And  leaving  out  of  view  the  force  of  climate,  the 
changing  seasons,  the  sudden  frosts  which  sometimes  disable 
and  very  generally  affect  the  negro  injuriously,  and  in  the  end 
destroy  him — leaving  all  this  out  of  consideration,  and  con- 


258      CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

templating  his  mere  industrial  adaptations,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  negro  can  never  be,  as  he  never  has  been,  able  to  cultivate 
the  soils  or  grow  the  products  of  the  temperate  latitudes. 
But  while  the  great  dividing  lines  are  distinct  enough,  while 
the  white  man  and  negro,  in  their  industrial  adaptations,  can 
never  be  in  conflict  when  each  is  within  that  centre  of  exist- 
ence to  which  the  Almighty  Creator  has  adapted  and  designed 
him,  there  is  a  large  extent  of  territory  where  they  may  both 
labor  to  advantage,  and  where  time  and  circumstances  may 
often  determine  their  presence  and  their  fitness  for  such  labor. 
The  white  man  is  forever  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  his  organi- 
zation to  labor  under  a  tropical  sun,  or  to  grow  by  his  own 
physical  efforts  the  products  indigenous  to  the  tropics.  The 
negro,  by  the  laws  of  both  his  physical  structure  and  mental 
nature,  is  forever  incapable  of  cultivating  the  soil  or  of  grow- 
ing the  products  indigenous  or  common  to  the  temperate 
latitudes. 

These  great  elementary  and  indestructible  truths,  which, 
fixed  forever  by  the  hand  of  God,  admit  of  no  exception, 
change,  or  modification  whatever,  which  time,  and  circum- 
stances, and  human  power  can  not  influence,  any  more  than 
the  laws  of  gravitation,  or  animal  growth,  or  the  term  of  ani- 
mal existence,  or  any  other  law  of  the  Creator  of  the  universe, 
will  not  be  mistaken ;  but  when  we  come  to  consider  the 
approximating  latitudes,  then  there  is  a  wide  field  opened 
up,  to  our  view,  to  chance,  to  time,  to  a  multitude  of  con- 
siderations. 

In  general  terms,  it  may  be  said,  that  wherever  the  white 
man  can  labor  with  effect,  that  is,  can  preserve  his  health  and 
the  full  exercise  of  his  faculties,  there  his  labor  must  be  more 
valuable  than  is  that  of  the  negro.  People  who  are  ignorant 
of  the  laws  of  climate  and  industrial  adaptations,  and  still 
worse,  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  negro  and  his  relations  to 


CLIMATIC     AND     INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION.   259 

the  white  man,  when  traveling  on  the  Ohio  River,  observe 
that  the  populations  on  the  Ohio  side  are  more  energetic, 
industrious,  and  prosperous  than  they  are  on  the  Kentucky- 
side  of  the  river,  and  they  infer  that  it  is  because  Kentucky 
has  "  slavery."  The  author  is  not  prepared  to  admit  their 
assumption,  for  though  there  may  be  greater  wealth  and 
apparently  greater  prosperity  in  Ohio,  the  true  and  only  test 
of  well-being  in  a  State  is  the  equality  of  condition  and  of  the 
happiness  of  its  people,  and  we  have  no  means  of  determining 
this  truth  by  applying  this  test  in  the  present  instance.  Eng- 
land is  vastly  more  wealthy  than  any  other  State  in  Christen- 
dom— its  annual  production  is  vastly  greater,  but  this  wealth 
is  monopolized  by  a  fraction  of  the  population.  While  the  great 
body  of  the  people  are  steeped  in  poverty  to  the  lips,  and 
while  the  few  are  every  day  growing  wealthier,  the  many  are, 
with  equal  rapidity  and  certainty,  becoming  more  abject  in 
their  poverty,  and,  consequently  more  ignorant,  vicious,  and 
miserable.  If,  therefore,  it  were  true  that  Ohio  did  increase  in 
wealth  more  rapidly  than  Kentucky,  it  would  by  no  means 
follow  that  the  people  of  Ohio  were  in  a  better  condition  than 
those  of  Kentucky.  But  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
production  is  greater  than  that  of  Kentucky,  for  while  the 
climate  and  industrial  adaptation  are  suited  to  the  white  man, 
there  are  none  but  white  men  in  Ohio,  while  nearly  half  of  the 
laboring  population  of  Kentucky  are  negroes.  The  same 
absurd  assumption  and  inference  have  been  made  in  respect  to 
Virginia  and  other  so-called  Slave  States,  when  contrasted 
with  New  York  and  other  so-called  Free  States.  It  has  been 
said,  "  Virginia  falls  behind  New  York  in  general  prosperity." 
"It  is  because  she  has  half  a  million  of  slaves,  and  if  she  will 
abolish  this  slavery,  then  sue  will  soon  equal,  perhaps  surpass, 
New  York,  for  Virginia  has  certain  natural  advantages  which 
New  York  has  not."     Or,  in  other  words,  it  is  said  that  Vir- 


280   CLIMATIC     AND     INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION. 

ginia  is  less  prosperous  than  New  York,  because  her  half  a 
million  of  negroes  are  in  a  normal  condition,  and  if  she  will 
thrust  them  from  this  condition  and  turn  them  loose,  as  New 
York  has  done,  then  Virginia  will  soon  be  equally  prosperous 
as  the  latter  !  Possibly  one  out  of  twenty  of  the  negroes  in 
New  York,  Ohio,  or  any  other  so-called  Free  State,  is  engaged 
in  productive  labor,  while  the  nineteen  others  live — tempor- 
arily— on  the  labor  of  the  producing  classes  of  those  States. 
The  argument  of  these  political  economists,  therefore,  is  sim- 
ply this :  Virginia  with  half  a  million  of  industrious  and  pro- 
ductive negroes,  is  less  prosperous  than  New  York,  but  if  she 
will  transform  them  into  half  a  million  of  idle,  non-productive, 
and  good-for-nothing  negroes,  then  she  will  rapidly  recover 
from  her  present  depressed  condition.  But  enough — these 
people  who  set  up  an  abstraction  entirely  nonsensical,  must 
reach  conclusions  equally  preposterous.  They  are  not  only 
ignorant  of  what  they  argue  about  so  pompously,  but  they 
imagine  conditions  that  not  only  do  not  but  can  not  exist, 
either  here  or  elsewhere,  in  our  own  times  or  any  other,  in  the 
existing,  or  any  other  world. 

Virginia,  Kentucky,  all  of  the  transition  States,  all  the  States 
with  considerable  negro  populations  that  are  in  the  temperate 
latitudes,  are,  of  course,  less  productive  than  those  bordering 
on  them  with  entire  white  populations,  for  the  negro  is  greatly 
inferior  in  his  industrial  capabilities,  as  in  all  other  respects, 
where  white  men  can  labor.  Thus  far  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
for  there  is  no  room  for  doubt,  but  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  the  people  of  Ohio  or  Pennsylvania  are  in  a  better  condi- 
tion than  those  of  Kentucky  and  Virginia.  The  people  of  Vir- 
ginia, if  not  homogenenous  in  race,  are  so  in  interest,  and  that 
one  great  fact  underlying  the  social  condition,  is  itself,  or  in 
the  results  that  flow  from  it,  of  vast  benefit.  The  interests  of 
the   State,  of  all   its  people,  the  "  slaveholder,"  "  non-slave- 


CLIMATIC     AND     INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION.     261 

holder,"  and  the  negro  or  so-called  slave,  are  homogeneous,  uni- 
versal, and  indivisible,  and  therefore  without  social  conflict,  01 
causes  for  social  conflict,  the  tendencies  of  the  social  order  are 
harmonious  and  beneficent.  The  only  seeming  conflict  or  the 
sole  thing  that  superficial  thinkers  might  mistake  for  such,  is 
the  fact  that  the  negro  is  not  adapted  to  the  locality,  and  they 
might  suppose  that  therefore  the  owner  of  his  services,  or  of 
this  so-called  slave  property,  might,  to  a  certain  extent,  mo- 
nopolize the  soil  that  of  right  belonged  to  the  white  laborer. 
But  a  moment's  reflection  will  be  sufficient  to  convince  any 
rational  mind  of  the  unsoundness  of  this  supposition. 

A  Virginia  planter  may,  perhaps,  inherit  a  thousand  acres  of 
land  and  a  hundred  negroes.  His  poor  white  neighbor  is  with- 
out land  perhaps,  and  thinks  it  hard  that  these  negroes,  whom 
his  instinct  as  well  as  reason  assures  him  are  not  as  well 
adapted  to  the  locality  as  himself,  should  occupy  it,  while 
he  has  none.  But  the  planter  himself  is  worse  off  still.  The 
land  is  worn  out — the  negro  capacity  can  not  resuscitate  it — 
they  barely  earn  sufficient  for  the  common  support — the 
planter  finds  it  hard  to  live  at  all,  and  only  does  so,  perhaps, 
by  parting  with  some  of  his  people,  and  therefore  whatever 
the  evil  of  this  negro  element  in  localities  which  the  changes 
of  time  and  circumstances  have  brought  about,  it  is  an  evil 
that  presses  upon  the  owner  of  this  species  of  property  with 
vastly  greater  force  than  it  does  on  the  non-slaveholder.  Of 
course  the  remedy  is  obvious — "  Slavery  Extension" — free  and 
full  expansion — the  acquisition  of  new  territories  suited  to  the 
industrial  capacities  of  the  negro.  For  example,  if  we  sup- 
pose the  late  General  "Walker  had  been  successful,  and  opened 
Central  America  to  American  settlement,  energy,  civilization, 
and  prosperity — the  Virginia  or  Maryland  planter,  who  now 
finds  it  difficult  to  "  make  both  ends  meet,"  would  gather  up 
his  household  and  migrate  to  these  inviting  and  fertile  regions. 


262    CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

His  negroes  producing  double  or  treble,  or  even  more,  in  their 
new  homes,  he  could  afford  to  send  his  children  to  the  North 
or  Europe  to  be  educated,  and  himself  spend  his  summers  at 
the  Springs  or  abroad,  and  live  as  luxuriously  as  he  pleased, 
while  his  negroes  or  so-called  slaves,  in  their  centre  of  exist- 
ence, where  God  ordained  that  they  should  live,  laving  them- 
selves in  the  genial  heats  of  the  tropics,  with  all  their  best  and 
highest  capacities  called  into  action,  and  the  best  qualities  of 
their  nature  healthily  and  naturally  developed,  would  be  even 
more  benefited,  perhaps,  than  the  master  himself.  The  va- 
cancy would  be  filled  by  the  increasing  white  population,  by 
the  constant  inflowing  of  the  mighty  masses  pouring  in  upon 
us  from  the  Old  World,  by  the  poor  German  or  other  Euro- 
pean peasant,  who  only  needs  liberty  and  the  means  for  devel- 
oping the  high  nature  with  which  God  endowed  him,  to  ex- 
hibit himself  as  the  equal  of  the  kings  and  aristocrats  who 
have  crushed  him  into  an  artificial  inferiority  actually  resem- 
bling the  natural  inferiority  of  the  negro,  and  these  impover- 
ished soils  being  resuscitated  by  his  industry,  his  intelligence, 
in  short,  his  industrial  adaptations,  the  now  wasted  and  wast- 
ing lands  of  the  transition  States  would  become,  and  doubtless 
wiU  become  some  day,  the  very  garden  of  the  republic.  Nor 
would  this  be  the  whole  of  the  beneficial  process  in  question. 
The  Avorld  needs,  and  especiaUy  our  own  farmers  and  working 
classes  need,  the  products  of  the  tropics.  Sugar,  and  coffee, 
and.  tropical  fruits  should  be  had  at  half  their  present  prices, 
while  the  increased  production,  the  extension  of  commerce  and 
general  progress  would  have  a  vast  influence  over  the  civiliza 
tion  of  our  times  by  this  simple  application  of  industrial  forces 
in  conformity  with  the  fundamental  laws  of  climatic  and  indus- 
trial adaptation.  A  large  majority  of  our  negro  population  are 
at  this  moment  outside  of  their  own  centre  of  existence,  and 
a  time  will  come  when  the  border  or  transition  States  will  prob 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTBIAL    ADAPTATION.    263 

ably  have  few  of  these  people.  As  observed,  it  is  absurd, 
a  contradiction,  an  abuse  of  language,  to  speak  of  "  slav- 
ery," or  the  social  subordination  of  the  negro,  as  an  evil,  or  as 
being,  under  any  possible  circumstances,  unprofitable,  for  that 
involves  the  anomaly  of  supposing  the  idle  and  good-for-nothing 
negro  a  benefit  to  the  State ;  but  the  negro  is  profitable  to  his 
master,  beneficial  to  the  State,  and  happy  himself  in  such  pro- 
portion as  he  approximates  to  the  tropics,  and  is  placed  in  juxta- 
position with  the  external  circumstances  to  which  God  has 
adapted  him.  They  or  their  progenitors  were  mainly  landed 
at  northern  ports.  They  were,  in  the  then  scarcity  of  labor, 
possibly  needed  even  in  the  Central  States.  As  an  advanced 
guard  in  the  rising  civilization  of  the  New  World,  they  were 
once,  perhaps,  essential  to  the  Provinces  of  Virginia,  Maryland, 
etc.,  for  the  rich  soil,  the  rank  vegetation,  the  extensive  marshes 
and  wild  river  bottoms  generated  an  extent  and  degree  of  ma- 
laria that  was  often  fatal  to  the  white  man,  and  rendered  the 
labor  and  aid  of  these  people  of  vital  importance  in  the  early 
settlement  of  the  country.  But  as  the  country  became  culti- 
tivated  and  white  laborers  became  plenty,  it  was  seen  that  the 
labor  of  the  negro  was  less  valuable  ;  so  that  Mr.  Jeflerson,  and 
many  of  his  cotemporaries,  actually  fancied  it  an  evil,  and  desired 
to  be  relieved  from  it.  And  indeed,  what  was  worse  still — 
they  confounded  the  existence  of  the  negro  with  the  relation, 
the  so-called  slavery,  of  the  negro ;  and  it  was  only  when 
Louisiana  was  occupied,  and  new  and  appropriate  regions 
were  opened  to  the  negro,  and  in  harmony  with  his  industrial 
capacities,  that  this  erroneous  notion  of  Mr.  Jeflerson  and 
others  disappeared  from  the  southern  mind.  Virginia  has  still 
a  large  negro  population,  but  while  they  are  mainly  employed 
in  cultivating  tobacco,  suited  to  the  simple  capacity  and 
subordinate  nature  of  the  negro,  the  demand  for  cotton,  rice, 
sugar,  etc.,  in  the  great  tropical  regions  of  the  republic,    is 


264   CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION 

rapidly  attracting  them  southward,  and  in  conformity  with 
their  own  happiness  as  well  as  the  welfare  of  the  white  citi- 
zenship, this  process  is  destined  to  go  on  until  they  are  all 
within  their  own  centre  of  existence.  Whether  or  not  Virginia, 
or  any  other  transition  State,  would  be  better  without  them  at 
this  time,  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  say,  or  to  conjecture 
even.  The  simple  fact,  however,  of  their  presence  there  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  it  was  desirable  to  have  them  among  them 
yet,  or  at  all  events  in  considerable  numbers,  but  the  indus- 
trial attraction  is  constantly  carrying  them  further  south — 
to  Texas,  Florida,  and  other  Gulf  States,  where  their  labor 
is  more  valuable. 

These  general  laws  of  climatic  and  industrial  adaptation, 
which  thus  underlie  the  social  fabric  when  made  up  of  mixed 
populations,  are  also  illustrated  by  the  national  history,  and 
demonstrated  in  every  step  of  the  national  progress.  When 
negroes  were  first  introduced  into  the  British  North  American 
Colonies,  there  was,  of  course,  and  for  many  years  after,  a 
great  demand  for  labor.  Here  was  a  mighty  continent,  a  new 
world,  open  to  the  enterprise  and  energy  of  the  most  energetic 
and  most  enterprising  branch  of  the  great  master  race  of  man- 
kind. All  that  was  wanted  was  labor — labor,  too,  that  was 
of  the  lowest  kind  in  some  respects,  and  laborers  whose  im- 
perfect innervation  and  low  grade  of  sensibility  could  resist 
the  malarious  influences  always  more  or  less  potent  in  new 
countries  and  virgin  soils,  even  in  temperate  latitudes,  wer6 
often  desirable.  The  Bristol  and  the  Liverpool  "  slave  mer- 
chants," therefore — the  progenitors  of  the  saints  and  philan- 
thropists of  Exeter  Hall — supplied  these  wants,  ordinarily 
with  negroes,  but  occasionally  with  some  of  their  own  poorer 
and  more  helpless  brethren,  whom  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
kidnap  and  send  out  to  labor  on  the  American  plantations. 
Negroes,  therefore,  were  forced  from  the  sea-board  to  the  in- 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.   206 

t<?rior,  even  as  far  as  Canada,  while  the  Central  Colonies  had 
even  very  considerable  numbers  of  these  people.  With  the 
downfall  of  the  British  dominion,  however,  the  Bristol  mer- 
chants were  forced  to  engage  in  other  enterprises,  and  as  the 
genius  and  daring  of  Clive  and  his  companions  had  just  then 
opened  a  new  and  boundless  empire  in  India,  English  capital, 
enterprise,  and  polity  took  another  direction,  and  though  the 
African  trade  was  continued  for  some  years  afterward  by  our 
own  people,  there  were,  comparatively,  but  few  negroes  im- 
ported after  the  overthrow  of  the  British  rule.  After  the  re- 
moval of  a  foreign  and  artificial  rule,  and  the  establishment  of 
a  political  system  in  harmony  with  the  instincts  and  wants  of 
our  people,  the  social  and  industrial  laws  were  permitted  a 
natural  development,  and  from  this  period  a  widely  different 
movement  began.  Negro  labor  was  less  profitable  in  the 
Eastern  than  in  the  Central  States,  and  of  course  less  profitable 
in  the  latter  than  in  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  etc.,  and  therefore 
the  industrial  attraction  carried  them  from  the  interior  to  the 
sea-board,  and  from  the  North  to  the  South.  The  acquisition 
of  Louisiana,  of  Florida,  etc.,  the  opening  of  new  regions  and 
the  formation  of  new  States  adapted  to  the  climatic  wants  and 
industrial  capabilities  of  the  negro,  drained  them  off  still 
more  rapidly.  Mr.  Jefferson  and  others,  as  has  been  observed, 
confounding  the  relation  of  the  races,  or  so-called  slavery,  with 
the  non-adaptability  of  the  negro  labor  in  temperate  latitudes, 
desired  to  exclude,  not  negroes,  but  the  social  relation  which 
they  supposed  an  evil,  from  the  northwest  territory,  and  the 
old  confederation,  it  will  be  remembered,  passed  an  ordinance 
to  that  effect.  This  "  ordinance,"  which  ignorance  and  folly 
have  so  long  worshipped  as  a  "  bulwark  of  freedom,"  with 
a*-  abject  a  spirit  and  total  absence  of  reason  as  the  Hindoo 
worships  his  Juggernaut,  of  course  never  had,  nor  could  have, 
the  shghtest  influence  over  the  subject. 

12 


L66   CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

If  there  had  been  no  extension  of  our  southern  borders, 
no  Louisiana,  Florida,  Alabama,  or  other  States  adapted  to 
the  wants  and  industrial  capabilities  of  the  negro,  the  whole 
Northwest,  at  this  moment,  would  be  what  these  blind  and 
mistaken  people  term  "  slave  territory."  The  cheap  lands  and 
fresh  soils  of  the  West,  would  attract  the  holders  of  this 
species  of  property  even  more  strongly  than  any  others,  and 
the  only  difference,  so  far  as  the  negro  is  concerned,  would  be, 
or  could  be,  that  their  numbers  would  be  less  than  at  present. 
As  he  approximates  to  his  centre  of  existence,  or  as  the  negro 
is  in  harmony  with  the  external  •  conditions  to  which  the 
Almighty  has  adapted  him,  his  well-being  is  secured,  his  vital- 
ity is  greater,  and  he  multiplies  himself  more  rapidly ;  there- 
fore as  regards  the  negro  element,  it  would  have  been  less  in 
the  Northwest  than  it  is  now  in  the  Southwest,  but  the  rela- 
tion, of  course,  would  be  as  at  present,  for  however  willing 
Vermont,  or  some  other  State  without  negroes  might  be  to 
pervert  these  relations,  and  in  theory  place  themselves  on  a 
level  with  a  subordinate  race,  those  who  are  in  juxtaposition 
with  negroes  have  never  done  so,  or  thus  voluntarily  attempted 
social  suicide. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  by  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  the  exten- 
sion of  our  Southern  limits,  therefore,  "  saved"  the  Northwest 
from  a  negro  population  and  so-called  slavery,  just  as  the 
acquisition  of  Texas  by  President  Tyler  and  the  eminent  and 
far-seeing  Calhoun  and  others,  at  a  later  day,  opened  other 
and  still  wider  regions  adapted  to  the  wants  and  specific  nature 
of  our  negro  population,  and  which  are  now,  by  the  natural  and 
indestructible  laws  of  climate  and  industrial  adaptation,  gradu- 
ally withdrawing  this  population  from  the  border  or  transition 
States.  Indeed,  one  only  needs  to  examine  the  several  census 
returns  of  the  federal  government,  from  1790  to  1860,  to  un- 
derstand both  the  history  of  the  country,  in  these  respects,  and 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL     ADAPTATION.     267 

the  operation  of  the  laws  of  climate  and  industrial  adaptation. 
They  will  then  see  that  the  negro  element  constantly  tends 
southward — a  black  column  ever  on  the  march  for  its  own 
centre  of  existence — an  advance  guard  of  American  civiliza- 
tion, that  moves  on  without  cessation,  and  that  must  continue 
to  advance  until  it  is  in  perfect  accord  with  those  external  con- 
ditions to  which  it  is  naturally  adapted.  Nor  is  the  interest 
of  the  master — the  increased  value  of  the  negro  labor — the 
sole  motive  power,  though  certainly  the  leading  cause  of  this 
progress  southward.  The  increased  and  increasing  white 
population,  with  the  vast  European  emigration,  is  pressing  on 
its  rear,  while  the  demands  of  modern  society  for  the  products 
of  its  labor,  and  many  other  influences,  are  every  day  increas- 
ing in  force,  and  impelling  the  negro  tropicward  with  greater 
rapidity  at  present,  jierhaps,  than  ever  before. 

Persons  wholly  ignorant  of  these  causes,  or  of  the  laws  un 
derlying  this  progress  of  the  negro  southward,  have  blindly 
labored  against  it,  and  in  regard  to  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
which  opened  such  a  wide  and  beneficent  field  for  negro  in- 
dustry, and  therefore  for  the  true  welfare  of  these  people,  they 
doubtless  really  believed  they  were  doing  them  a  kindness 
when  thus  foolishly  striving  to  reverse  the  ordinances  of  the 
Eternal,  and  to  prevent  the  expansion  of  this  negro  popula- 
tion. And  this  expansion,  or  this  industrial  attraction  con- 
stantly going  on  from  Virginia  and  other  border  States  to 
Texas  and  the  Gulf  States,  doubtless  does  appear  unjust,  and, 
perhaps,  inhuman  to  those  ignorant  of  the  negro  nature,  as 
well  as  of  those  laws  of  industrial  adaptation  which  always 
have  and  always  must  govern  the  subject.  The  sale  of  negroes 
in  Richmond  and  Norfolk,  to  be  sent  South,  seems  to  them, 
perhaps,  a  great  hardship,  but  while  it  is  believed  that  the 
larger  portion  are  accompanied  by  their  masters,  who  naturally 
seek  new  homes  in  Texas,  etc.,  there  is  no  other  possible 


268     CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION. 

mode  or  means  through  which  they  could  reach  a  more  genial 
clime,  and  therefore,  even  if  it  were  indeed  a  harsh  procedure 
to  sell  them  in  Richmond,  it  would  still  he  vastly  more  inhu- 
man to  keep  them  from  approximating  to  their  specific  centre 
of  existence.  As  it  is,  it  is  true  heneficence  and  kindness  to 
facilitate  their  progress  southward;  but  if  they  really  were 
black-white  men,  as  the  ignorant  anti-slaveryite  fancies  they 
are,  and  without  any  specific  affinity  or  adaptation  for  a  tropi- 
cal climate,  even  in  that  case  their  public  sale  at  Richmond  or 
Norfolk,  to  supply  the  labor  market  of  Texas,  would  not  in- 
volve a  thousandth  part  of  the  misery  and  physical  suffering 
endured  by  a  very  considerable  portion  of  those  British  sub- 
jects who  annually  arrive  at  New  York.  Indeed,  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  thousand  or  so  diseased,  half-starved,  and  mis- 
erable  British  subjects,  which  the  Mayor  of  New  York  had 
penned  up  and  out  of  sight  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  Castle 
Garden,  in  order  not  to  offend  the  olfactories  or  revolt  the 
senses  of  that  young  person,  embodied  more  physical  suffering, 
more  wrong  and  outrage  on  humanity,  than  could  be  inflicted 
on  negroes  through  all  eternity,  so  far  as  this  process  of  exten- 
sion southward  may  be  concerned.  The  master,  or  the  man 
who  purchases  the  service  of  the  negro,  has,  of  course,  the  ut- 
most interest  in  taking  care  of  him  and  providing  for  all  his 
wants,  while  the  negro  himself,  on  the  way  to  the  climate  and 
the  external  conditions  for  which  the  Almighty  has  adapted 
him,  must  be  in  the  pathway  of  progress,  and  advancing  gen- 
erally toward  that  goal  of  happiness  and  well-being  which  the 
common  Creator  has  designed  for  all  His  creatures. 

No  law  or  legislation  would  seem  to  be  needed — nothing  but 
the  removal  of  all  obstructions  from  the  path  of  progress,  and 
the  free  and  full  development  of  the  laws  of  industrial  attrac- 
tion. The  demands  for  tropical  products,  and  the  greater 
value  of  the  negro  labor-  -the  necessities  of  modern  civilization 


CLIMATIC    AND    INDUSTRIAL    ADAPTATION.      269 

and  the  interests  of  the  master — have  carried  the  negro  from 
the  Central,  as  they  are  now  carrying  him  from  the  border 
States,  toward  the  great  tropical  centre  of  the  continent. 
And  by  a  beneficent  and  inevitable  necessity  which  God  him- 
self ha?  fixed  forever  in  the  economy  of  the  universe,  the  wel- 
fare of  the  negro  is  secured  in  exact  proportion  as  these  laws 
of  industrial  attraction  and  adaptation  are  permitted  free 
action  and  full  development. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  it  would  seem  that  a  wmple  re- 
moval of  all  obstructions  to  these  fixed  and  fundamental  laws 
would  be  all  that  was  needed  to  secure  the  best  welfare  of  all 
— white  men  and  negroes — of  the  North  equally  with  the 
South,  for  while  the  industrial  attraction  would  remove  the 
negro  element  just  as  fast  as  the  interests  of  the  border  States 
may  demand,  the  West  can  always  secure  themselves  from  a 
considerable  negro  population,  by  aiding  in  the  removal  of  ob- 
structions froni  our  southern  borders,  as  Jefferson  eaved  them 
Bixty  years  ago. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

NORTH   AND    SOUTH. — ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN   IDEA   OP 
GOVERNMENT. 

Although  the  progenitors  of  our  so-called  slaves  were 
mainly  imported  at  Northern  ports,  and  all  of  the  Northern 
and  Middle  States  have  had,  at  times,  considerable  negro  pop- 
ulations, the  process  of  transition  southward  has  been  so  rapid 
that  the  Northern  communities,  or  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States,  have  been  but  little  impressed  by  them  or  influenced 
in  their  ideas  and  mental  habits  by  the  presence  of  this  widely 
different  and  subordinate  element  of  our  general  population. 
But  when  they  became  a  fixed  population,  when  Virginia, 
especially,  had  acquired  what,  by  comparison,  may  be  called  a 
large  negro  element,  then  the  actual  presence  of  these  negroes 
called  into  existence  new  ideas,  and  gave  development  to  new 
modes  of  thought  or  mental  habitudes.  All  our  ideas  and 
mental  habits  are,  in  a  sense,  accidental,  the  result  of  circum- 
stances, just  as  language,  which  is  the  outward  expression  of 
our  ideas,  becomes  changed  by  time  and  circumstances.  The 
English  of  the  tenth  century  were  widely  different,  of  course, 
in  their  ideas  and  mental  habits  from  the  English  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  under  the  rule  of  the  Normans ;  and  this  differ- 
ence was  widely  varied  from  anything  that  mere  time  or  ordi- 
nary circumstances  could  have  produced. 

And  the  different  mental  habits  of  the  people  of  America 
generally,  when  contrasted  with  those  of  Europe,  show  suffi- 
ciently that  all  our  ideas  are  accidental,  the  result  of  local  cir- 
cumstances, though,  of  course,  all  are  in   subordination  to 


ESQUIMAUX 


UNIVEPrSlTV'oftLLl^S. 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  271 

those  fixed  and  fundamental  laws  of  mind  that  are  specific  with 
the  race.  The  presence,  therefore,  of  the  negro — of  a  widely 
different  and  subordinate  element  of  the  population  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  other  States,  when  it  became  stationary  and  had  to 
be  provided  for  by  the  local  legislatures,  its  specific  wants  as 
well  as  those  of  the  citizenship  looked  after,  and  its  social 
adaptations  rendered  harmonious  with  the  welfare  of  the  for- 
mer — naturally  developed  new  ideas  of  government  and  new 
modes  of  thought  in  the  dominant  and  governing  race.  Except, 
possibly,  some  of  the  Spanish  colonies  south  of  us,  there  was 
no  portion  of  the  New  World  where  so  many  of  those  who 
could  claim  connection  with  European  aristocracy  originally 
settled  as  in  the  province  of  Virginia. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  Massachusetts  a  great  number  of  the 
most  respectable  of  the  middle  classes  of  English  society,  and 
.some  few  instances  of  the  old  hereditary  nobility,  found  new 
homes  in  the  colony,  but  in  the  latter  case  they  had  abandoned 
the  old  Norman  traditions,  and  to  enjoy  their  religion  and 
"  freedom  of  conscience,"  identified  themselves  with  Puritan- 
ism. In  the  Dutch  province  of  New  York,  there  was,  perhaps, 
a  somewhat  larger  infusion  of  the  aristocratic  element,  but  as 
Holland  itself  was  essentially  republican,  and  the  Dutch  really 
the  originators  of  modern  liberty  in  Europe,  and,  moreover, 
had  a  very  limited  landed  aristocracy  compared  with  England, 
France,  etc.,  but  few  persons  identified  by  tradition  and  asso- 
ciation with  the  hereditary  aristocracy  of  the  Old  World  found 
their  way  into  the  Dutch  settlements  of  the  New. 

But  Virginia  was  originally  settled — to  a  very  large  extent 
— by  the  offspring  of  the  old  Norman  chivalry,  by  the  cava- 
liers— the  descendants  of  the  proudest,  most  warlike,  most 
chivalrous,  heroic,  and  enterprising,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
most  tyrannical  and  oppressive  aristocracy  the  world  has  ever 
seen.     Those  who  belong  to  the  race — the  same  species — of 


272  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

course  will,  under  the  same  circumstances,  manifest  the  sama 
qualities,  and  therefore,  if  at  any  time  the  child  of  the  princely 
Plantagenet  or  lordly  Warwick  had  been  exchanged  in  its 
cradle  with  the  "  base"  progeny  of  some  Saxon  churl,  who  fed 
and  kenneled  with  their  hounds,  the  latter  would  have  grown 
up  with  all  the  pride  and  chivalry,  and  princely  bravery  com- 
mon to  the  former.  Nevertheless,  a  class,  an  aristocracy,  a 
privileged  order,  forms  sentiments,  ideas,  etc.,  and  transmits 
its  traditions,  rules,  etc.,  to  its  descendants,  that  may,  for  cen- 
turies perhaps,  preserve  their  integrity.  Even  in  our  social 
every-day  life,  and  changing  society,  we  often  see  families 
transmitting  their  family  usages,  habitudes,  modes  of  thought 
as  well  as  action,  for  several  generations,  and  with  only  slight 
departures  from  the  family  model  left  by  some  original  or 
venerated  ancestor.  Aristocracies,  however,  Usually  destroy 
themselves  by  the  very  means  they  resort  to  to  preserve  their 
ascendency  over  the  great  body  of  the  people.  In  order  to 
preserve  the  respect,  the  awe,  the  continued  belief  of  the  vul- 
gar mass  in  their  seeming  superiority,  they  must  avoid  the 
populace  and  intermarry  with  their  order,  and  the  more  com- 
pletely this  is  done,  the  more  they  become  a  close  corporation 
as  it  were,  and  violate  the  laws  of  consanguinity,  the  more 
rapidly  they  are  deteriorated  and  fall  below  the  general  aver- 
age of  the  people.  The  Northmen,  the  robust  and  enterpris- 
ing fishermen  of  the  Baltic,  the  filibusters  and  pirates  of  the 
Northern  Seas,  invaded  France  and  conquered  Normandy, 
and  Rolla  and  his  roving  horde  of  followers  threatened  to 
overrun  Paris,  and  indeed  the  whole  kingdom.  They  finally 
settled  down  in  Normandy,  from  which,  at  a  later  date,  they 
emerged  into  Italy,  conquered  Naples,  the  island  of  Sicily,  and 
for  a  long  time  threatened  an  invasion  of  the  Oriental  World, 
which  could  hardly  have  resisted  such  an  indomitable  race  of 
men.     A   Duke  —  a  bastard  Duke  of  Normandy,  at  that  time 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  273 

laid  claim  to  the  crown  of  England,  and  with  forty  thousand 
followers  landed  in  that  country,  and  in  a  single  battle  so  com- 
pletely demolished  the  "  Anglo-Saxons"  and  Anglo-Saxonism, 
so  much  boasted  of  in  these  days,  that  the  former  have  re- 
mained slaves  ever  since,  and  the  latter  was  so  utterly  annihi- 
lated that  it  disappeared  for  ever  on  that  fatal  day  at  Hastings. 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  Normans  assumed  the  distinct 
form  of  an  aristocracy  or  privileged  order. 

Though  they  had  long  since  cast  off  the  rude  habits  and 
uncouth  manners  of  adventurers  and  conquerors,  and  when 
they  invaded  England  were,  perhaps,  as  intelligent  and  refined 
as  any  similar  number  of  European  people,  and  a  great  deal 
more  so  than  those  they  conquered  in  England,  they  had  never 
assumed  the  form,  enacted  laws,  or  established  rules  and  regu- 
lations as  an  aristocracy  or  governing  class.  From  this  time 
forth,  however,  the  Norman  aristocracy  ruled  England  with  an 
iron  hand,  and  though  the  wars  of  the  Roses,  and  the  still 
more  fatal  conflict  with  the  Puritans  or  middle  class,  exter- 
minated or  drove  out  the  remains  of  the  Norman  blood,  and 
there  is  little,  if  any,  in  England  at  this  time,  the  country  is 
still  governed  by  the  traditions,  the  habits,  in  short,  the  sys- 
tem established  by  the  old  Norman  aristocracy.  Most  of  the 
great  families  became  extinct,  while  the  younger  sons  and 
others  of  broken  fortunes  emigrated  to  Virginia,  and  with  the 
establishment  of.  the  commonwealth,  very  many  of  the  Nor- 
man ancestry  abandoned  England.  So  many  and  so  strong 
were  the  remnants  of  the  old  Norman  families  in  Virginia,  that 
they  refused  to  recognize  the  commonwealth,  and  actually  set 
at  defiance  the  formidable  power  and  iron  will  of  Cromwell. 

But  these  remains  of  the  old  Norman  aristocracy — that  aris- 
tocracy which  for  several  centuries  governed  England — that 
have  left  their  impress,  their  habits,  their  laws  of  primogeni- 
ture, their   feudalistic   customs,   so  deeply  engraven   on  the 

12* 


274  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

English  mind,  that  the  aristocracy  of  the  day,  though  entirely 
modern,  and  with  scarcely  any  family  connection  with  it,  are 
able  to  govern  the  masses,  through  these  habitudes,  as  abso- 
lutely as  the  Normans  once  did  by  the  sword  and  the  strong 
hand  of  arbitrary  power,  these  descendants  of  the  old  Norman 
race  in  Virginia  have  changed  completely  about,  and  though 
their  ancestors  were  the  main  supporters  of  kingly  despotism, 
they  are  the  originators  and  champions  of  democracy  in 
America. 

In  all  the  changes  and  mutations  of  human  society,  there  is 
scarcely  any  parallel  to  this  change  of  ideas  in  Virginia,  or  to 
this  extraordinary  transformation  which  has  changed  the  de- 
scendants of  the  old  Norman  aristocracy  into  the  firmest  and 
most  reliable  defenders  of  democracy.  Of  course,  the  early 
colonists  of  Virginia  were  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of 
English  society ;  not  a  few  of  them,  perhaps,  were  kidnapped 
young  peasants,  without  friends  or  relatives  to  protect  them 
or  to  punish  the  base  wretches  who  carried  them  over  the  sea 
and  sold  them  here,  as  elsewhere,  in  the  American  colonies. 
But  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  a  larger,  vastly  larger  body 
of  "  gentlemen"  emigrated  to  Virginia  than  to  any  other  col- 
ony, and  as  these  were  all  cadets,  or  younger  branches  of  the 
great  houses  in  England,  nearly  all  of  which  were  Norman  in 
descent,  and  nearly  all  of  which  in  the  direct  line  afterward 
perished  in  the  wars  of  the  commonwealth,  it  would  seem 
equally  certain  that  if  there  be  any  Norman  blood  anywhere, 
it  must  now  be  found,  or  mainly  found,  in  Virginia. 

The  cause  of  this  transformation,  this  radical  and  extraordi- 
nary change  of  opinion,  which  has  made  the  descendants  of 
the  proudest  and  most  despotic  aristocracy  ever  known  the 
authors  and  main  supporters  of  democracy,  must  be  a  potent 
one,  and  as  far  removed  from  the  ordinary  causes  which,  in  the 
progress  of  time,  modify  men's  opinions  and  habits,  as  the 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  275 

results  themselves  are  extraordinary  and  without  parallel.  As 
has  been  remarked,  all  our  ideas  and  mental  habits  are  the 
result  of  circumstances,  the  external  influences  that  surround 
us,  the  changed  conditions  of  our  existence,  which  give  origin 
to  new  thoughts  and  new  modes  of  mental  action.  And  when 
we  take  these  things  into  view  and  contemplate  the  changed 
conditions,  the  new  and  altogether  different  circumstances  that 
surrounded  these  Virginia  descendants  of  the  cavaliers  and 
gentlemen  of  England,  then  the  causes  are  obvious — the  new 
ideas  that  sprung  up  in  men's  minds,  legitimate  and  consistent 
with  the  extraordinary  and  indeed  unparalleled  circumstances 
under  which  they  lived.  They  were  in  juxtaposition  with 
negroes,  with  an  inferior  race,  with  widely  different  and  subor- 
dinate social  elements,  and  new  thoughts,  new  ideas,  as  well  as 
altogether  different  habits,  naturally  and  necessarily  followed. 
They  saw  these  negroes  were  different  beings  from  themselves, 
not  in  color  alone,  or  in  other  physical  characteristics,  but  in 
their  mental  qualities,  their  affections,  their  wants,  in  short,  in 
then*  ituture  and  the  necessities  of  their  social  life,  their  welfare 
and  happiness,  and  indeed  the  welfare  of  this  subordinate  ele- 
ment, demanded  corresponding  action,  with,  of  course,  corre- 
sponding ideas  and  modes  of  thought.  They  saw  that  this 
negro  was  not  artificially  or  accidentally,  but  naturally  dif- 
ferent from  themselves,  that  God  himself  had  made  him 
different  and  given  him  different  faculties  and  different  wants, 
and  therefore  designed  him  for  different  purposes,  and  that  it 
was  an  imperative  and  unavoidable  duty  as  well  as  necessity 
to  adapt  their  social  habits  and  legal  and  political  institutions 
to  this  state  or  condition  of  fixed  and  unalterable  fact.  But 
this  was  not  all,  nor  the  limit  to  the  new  ideas  that  thus  origin- 
ated in  the  changed  conditions  under  which  they  were  living. 
Their  traditions,  the  mental  habits  of  their  old  cavalier  ances- 
try, the  ideas  they  carried  from  the  mother  country,  taught 


276  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

them  to  regar  J  the  person  of  a  king  as  something  quite  sacred, 
and  to  whom  an  absolute  and  unquestioning  obedience  was 
always  due,  while  the  class  of  gentlemen,  the  nobility,  or  aris- 
tocracy, that  more  immediately  surrounded  royalty  was  deemed 
to  be  altogether  superior  and  different  from  the  vulgar  multi- 
tudes that  made  up  the  people.  The  celebrated  formula  of 
Archbishop  Laud,  that  "  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance'* 
was  the  absolute  and  universal  duty  of  the  people  to  the  will 
of  the  king,  expressed  with  brevity  and  accuracy  the  prevalent 
sentiment  of  the  cavaliers,  and  they  demanded  from  their 
special  retainers  the  same  unquestioning  submission  which 
they  themselves  accorded  to  royalty.  The  ignorance  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  on  one  hand,  and  the  actual  power 
and  tyranny  of  the  nobles  on  the  other,  sunk  so  deep  into  the 
common  mind  of  England  and  other  European  people  during 
the  middle  ages,  that  though  many  generations  have  passed 
since,  the  sentiment  of  superiority  in  one  class  and  of  inferior- 
ity in  the  other,  remains  yet,  and  in  England  at  this  day  is 
nearly  as  potent  as  ever. 

But  the  descendants  of  the  cavaliers  in  Virginia  were  placed 
face  to  face  with  facts  that  utterly  exploded  these  factitious 
sentiments  that  had  their  origin  in  a  certain  condition  of 
society,  and  not  in  nature  or  in  the  natural  relations  of  men. 
They  were  in  juxtaposition  with  negroes,  with  different  and 
subordinate  beings,  human,  it  is  true,  like  themselves,  but  dif- 
ferent human  beings,  just  as  pigeons,  while  birds  equally  with 
robins,  are  different  birds,  or  as  hounds,  though  dogs,  were 
different  dogs  from  spaniels  or  bull-dogs.  This  was  a  great, 
starting,  fixed  fact,  that  no  amount  or  extent  of  sentiment, 
theory,  or  mental  habit  could  explain  away  or  modify,  or  avoid 
in  any  respect.  They  saw  this  fact  daily  staring  them  in  the 
face ;  they  were  compelled  to  recognize  it,  to  legislate  for  it, 
or  for  these  people,  to  adapt  their  social  customs  to  it,  in  short, 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  277 

to  conform  to  it,  and  therefore  were  forced  to  cast  aside  their 
preconceived  notions,  the  traditions  and  mental  habits  of  their 
ancestors,  all  then'  ideas  of  loyalty  to  a  creature  like  them- 
selves and  of  their  own  class-superiority  which  they  had 
brought  from  the  Old  World.  "What  was  their  fancied  supe- 
riority over  their  own  humbler  brethren,  when  contrasted  with 
this  natural  inferiority  of  the  negro  ?  What  was  the  accident 
of  education,  of  wealth,  of  refinement  of  manners,  or  any 
other  factitious,  temporary,  or  accidental  thing  worth,  which 
separated  them  from  their  less  fortunate  neighbors,  when  com- 
pared with  the  handiwork  of  nature,  with  the  fixed  and  im- 
passable barriers  that  separated  them  both  from  negroes  ? 
What,  in  short,  were  the  petty  distinctions  of  human  pride, 
vanity,  and  accident,  in  comparison  with  the  ordinances  of  the 
Eternal  ? 

Such  were  the  facts  that  confronted  them,  such  the  external 
circumstances  that  developed  new  ideas  and  new  modes  of 
thought  in  the  colonists  of  Virginia,  such  the  potent  causes 
that  changed  the  descendants  of  English  cavaliers  into  the 
earliest,  most  consistent,  and  most  reliable  champions  of  de- 
mocracy in  America.  The  same  causes,  to  a  certain  extent, 
influenced  the  inhabitants  of  other  colonies,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  in  precise  proportion  to  the  amount  and  the  fixed- 
ness of  this  negro  element  in  any  locality,  there  were  cleai', 
corresponding  views  of  liberty  and  equality  among  white  men. 
Indeed,  this  is  as  true  now  as  ever  before,  and  almost  invari- 
ably there  are  sound  and  rational  views  of  liberty  and  of  dem- 
ocratic institutions  in  precise  proportion  to  the  presence,  or 
imperfect  and  unsound  notions  in  proportion  to  the  absence, 
of  this  negro  element.  Those  States  like  Mississippi,  Texas, 
Arkansas,  and  Alabama,  that  have  relatively  the  largest  negro 
population,  are  the  most  decidedly  and  consistently  democratic, 
while  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  etc.,  with  the  fewest  negroes 


278  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

among  them,  are  the  most  unsound  in  these  respects,  and  how- 
ever intelligent  in  regard  to  other  things,  are  certainly  behind 
most  of  the  great  American  communities  in  political  knowledge. 

South  Carolina,  and  perhaps  some  others,  may  seem  excep- 
tions to  this  very  general  truth,  but  if  so  in  reality,  it  is  owing 
to  peculiar  causes,  such  as  the  education  of  many  of  its  people 
abroad,  in  Europe,  and  at  the  North,  etc.,  but  even  as  re- 
gards that  State,  so  exceptional  in  many  respects,  land  is  more 
equally  divided  than  in  any  other  State,  and  where  such  a 
fact  obtains,  the  general  tendency  to  equality  in  citizenship 
must  be  strikingly  manifested. 

The  great  revolutionary  movement  of  1776  gave  full  expres- 
sion to  the  new  modes  of  thought,  the  grand  ideas,  the  glorious 
truths  thus  developed  in  the  mind  of  Virginia,  and  relatively  in 
the  other  colonies,  where  this  cause,  this  negro  element  had  any- 
thing like  a  stationary  existence.  It  was  no  accident  or  chance 
that  made  Mr.  Jefferson  the  author  of  the  great  idea,  or  rather 
the  exponent  of  the  idea  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  grand  and  immortal  truth,  that  all  white  men  are 
created  equal,  and  therefore  entitled  to  equal  rights,  or,  as  he 
expressed  it,  to  "life,  liberty,  and  happiness."  True,  some 
other  Virginian  might  have  done  this,  and  possibly  some  mind 
in  the  Middle  Provinces,  New  Jersey,  or  New  York,  might 
have  formed  a  tolerably  clear  conception  of  this  great  fixed 
and  unchangeable  truth  that  underlies  the  whole  superstruc- 
ture of  our  political  society ;  but  no  man  in  the  Northern 
Provinces  could  have  risen  to  this  mental  elevation  at  that 
period  in  our  history;  indeed  comparatively  few  are  even 
now  capable  of  it.  Massachusetts  and  the  neighboring  colonies 
grasped  the  idea  of  independence  with  great  clearness,  and 
urged  it  with  an  earnestness,  bravery,  and  indomitable  perse- 
verance certainly  unsurpassed,  if  equalled  elsewhere,  but  it  was 
independence  of  a  foreign  dominion,  and  not  independence  of 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  279 

foreign  ideas  or  of  a  hostile  system.  They  were  without  negroes, 
without  any  natural  substratum  in  the  social  elements,  without 
any  test  or  standard  to  determine  men's  natural  relations  to 
each  other,  and  clinging  to  the  mental  habits  of  their  British 
ancestors,  they  were  therefore  incapable  of  forming  those  grand 
and  truthful  conceptions  of  equality  which  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
Virginians  generally,  under  the  influences  that  have  been  stated, 
so  clearly  apprehended.  The  accidental  and  artificial  distinc- 
tions of  society — family  influence,  wealth,  education,  etc.,  were 
as  in  England,  though,  of  course,  not  to  the  same  extent — the 
standards,  the  tests,  the  land-marks  of  the  political  as  well  as 
the  social  order,  and  the  phrase  often  used  by  New  England 
writers  of  our  own  day,  that  "  representation  was  inseparable 
from  taxation,"  fully  expressed  the  mental  habits  and  imper- 
fect political  conceptions  of  the  Northern  mind.  In  England, 
except  the  titled  aristocracy,  the  House  of  Lords  or  Peerage, 
which  pretends  to  rest  on  blood  or  birth  (?),  wealth  alone  gives 
rights.  The  man  is  nowhere,  no  part  or  portion,  or  element 
even  of  the  political  system.  In  every  county  where  he  hap- 
pens to  have  property,  he  has  a  vote,  but  if  without  property, 
he  has  no  voice  whatever,  and,  as  observed,  is  not  even  an 
element  of  representation,  as  are  the  negroes  of  the  South. 
Taxation  and  representation,  therefore,  are  inseparable,  so  far 
as  forms  are  concerned,  in  the  British  system,  though,  as  a 
fact,  it  is  the  working  classes,  who  are  not  represented  at  all, 
that  must  pay  all  the  taxes  in  the  end.  The  mental  habits  of 
the  North,  in  1776,  were  fashioned  on  this  model ;  they  saw 
only  those  accidental  things  that  separate  classes  in  England, 
as,  wealth,  education,  etc.,  and  though  they  had  an  earnest 
desire  for  liberty,  this  liberty  was  a  vague,  undefined,  shadowy 
sentiment,  rather  than  any  precise  idea  resting  on  fact  as  in 
Virginia.  The  immediate  want  and  common  impulse  of  inde- 
pendence, however,  impelled  all  parties  to  act  harmoniously 


280  NOBTH     AND     SOUTH. 

for  its  accomplishment,  and  though  the  grand  truths  presented 
by  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  were  far  above 
the  then  intellectual  standard  of  the  North,  it  did  not  conflict 
with  the  mental  habits  of  the  Northern  people  sufficiently  to 
interfere  with  the  common  object.  But  when  that  object  was 
accomplished — when  the  foreign  dominion  was  overthrown 
and  the  common  independence  secured,  and  a  new  political 
system  was  to  be  created,  then  a  conflict  of  ideas  was  devel- 
oped that  was  found  to  be  so  grave,  that  many  good  and  patri- 
otic men  for  some  time  feared  it  could  not  be  compromised. 
The  leading  men  of  the  North — the  representative  men — the 
men  who  desired  independence  from  foreign  domination,  but 
with,  at  best,  vague  notions  of  liberty,  or  of  a  new  political 
system — Hamilton,  Adams,  Morris,  etc. — now  came  into  serious 
conflict  with  the  democratic  ideas  of  Virginia.  They  desired  a 
monarchy  without  a  king,  or  a  republic  without  the  rule  of 
the  masses.  The  general  notion  was,  the  British  model  with- 
out its  defects,  or  the  British  system  without  its  corruptions, 
and  so  entirely  were  some  wedded  to  this,  that  they  declared 
it,  with  all  its  corruptions,  the  best  government  in  the  world. 

The  leaders  very  generally  assumed,  as  they  often  expressed 
it,  that  society  was  naturally  divided  into  the  few  and  the 
many — the  educated  minority,  and  the  laboring  majority — and 
as  such  was  the  actual  social  condition  of  the  population  as 
well  as  the  meutal  habits  of  the  leaders,  it  is  not  at  all  surpris- 
ing that  they  sought  to  found  a  government  on  such  a  basis. 
The  agricultural  population  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  States 
were  then  very  ignorant  indeed,  when  compared  with  the 
present.  Feudalism  had  not  been  long  overthrown  in  England 
or  Europe,  and  the  serf  transformed  into  the  peasant,  and 
though  the  American  farmer  of  1776  was  a  great  advance  over 
the  latter,  he  still  largely  partook  of  that  general  apathy,  sto- 
lidity, and  :gnorance  which  in  all  times,  until  now,  iu  our  own 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  281 

favored  land,  have  distinguished  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  The 
large  population  at  the  North  otherwise  employed,  the  me- 
chanics, artisans,  shop-keepers,  laborers,  etc.,  were  generally, 
as  in  the  mother  country,  without  representation  in  the  pro- 
vincial legislatures,  and  as  the  interests  of  the  educated  classes, 
the  capitalists,  merchants,  lawyers,  divines,  etc.,  were  supposed 
to  be,  and  were  in  fact,  in  conflict  with  those  of  the  former, 
they  always  desired  strong  governments  to  hold  them  in  order. 
Indeed,  the  idea  of  mob  ascendency,  of  anarchy,  the  wild  ride  of 
the  rabble,  was  the  constant  terror  of  the  Northern  leaders,  and 
in  all  the  arguments  of  Hamilton,  the  Adamses,  etc.,  this  was 
put  prominently  forward.  Their  rhetorical  formula  was  always 
the  same — "  the  rule  of  the  uneducated  mass  will  degenerate 
into  license  and  anarchy,  from  which  the  country  can  only  be 
saved  by  the  strong  hand  of  some  military  chief,  who,  first  a 
dictator,  will  finally  don  the  purple,  and  the  role  so  often 
played  in  the  Old  World  will  be  repeated  in  the  New."  This 
notion  and  this  reasoning  was  legitimate — the  consistent  result 
of  the  social  condition  as  well  as  the  offspring  of  the  inherited 
traditions  of  the  Northern  mind.  The  capitalists,  all  those 
who  inherited  wealth,  the  "  well-born"  and  educated  class,  in 
short,  the  few  who  had  the  power  in  then*  hands,  naturally 
sought,  to  preserve  it  and  to  build  up  a  strong  government; 
which,  while  it  specially  benefited  themselves,  should  always  be 
able  to  "  preserve  order" — that  is,  while  founded  on  existing 
social  distinctions,  was  sufficiently  strong  to  repress  the  efforts 
of  the  multitude  to  change  the  social  condition.  They  had  no 
negroes,  no  natural  substratum  in  the  social  elements  or  na- 
tural distinctions  of  society.  They  had  nothing  before  their 
eyes  but  the  results  of  chance,  of  the  accidents  of  life — noth- 
ing but  wealth  and  education — nothing,  in  short,  but  the  debris 
of  the  eld  societies — those  class  distinctions  which  in  the  Old 
World  constitute  the  basis  of  the  political  and  social  order, 


282  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

and  their  mental  habits,  their  opinions,  their  notions  of  govern- 
ment and  its  uses,  were,  of  course,  in  accord  with  these  things, 
and  their  minds  were  incapable  of  rising  above  the  existing 
condition,  of  overleaping  the  barriers  and  escaping  from  the 
external  circumstances  that  surrotvnded  them.  There  were, 
doubtless,  individual  exceptions — some  men  who  were  deeply 
imbued  with  the  grand  idea  promulgated  by  Jefferson  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  There  were  many  in  the  Mid- 
dle States  who  had  an  imperfect  but  advancing  conception  of 
this  glorious  truth,  and  there  was  still  a  larger  number,  per- 
haps, who  were  groping  in  darkness  with  a  vague  but  earnest 
desire  to  embrace  it.  But  the  dominant  thought,  the  prev- 
alent opinion,  the  general  mental  habit,  was  reflected  by  the 
representative  men,  the  great  Northern  leaders,  Hamilton, 
Adams,  Otis,  and  their  companions,  who  desired  to  foimd  a 
government  on  the  British  model,  winch,  though  it  should  be 
a  great  improvement  over  the  former,  was  to  be  based  on  the 
same  foundation — for,  to  their  minds,  their  mental  habits, 
there  was  no  other,  or,  at  all  events,  no  other  safe  basis  for 
government.  They  were  honest  and  patriotic  men — men  of 
gifted  minds  and  large  attainments — men  sorely  tried  and 
tested  by  the  hardships  and  sufferings  of  a  seven  years'  war, 
through  which  they  walked  with  their  lives  in  their  hands,  and 
the  scaffold  always  frowning  on  them  in  the  distance,  and  the 
purity  of  intentions,  the  unselfish  and  patriotic  desires  of  such 
men,  should  never  be  questioned.  They  could  not  rise  above 
the  circumstances  that  surrounded  them  ;  they  could  not  com- 
prehend the  grand  idea  of  Mr.  Jefferson  ;  they  saw  before 
them  only  class  distinctions,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  educa- 
ted few  and  the  toiling  many,  and  they  desired  to  build  the 
government  on  the  status  quo,  and  therefore  demanded  a 
strong  government,  that  should  always  be  able  to  restrain  the 
multitude  and  keep  them  in  subjection  to  their  "  rulers." 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  283 

On  the  contrary,  as  has  been  stated,  Virginia  had  cast  off 
the  mental  habits  of  the  Old  World,  the  offspring  had  long 
since  outgrown  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors  ;  the  descend- 
ants of  English  cavaliers  had  changed  entirely  about  in  their 
opinions,  and  the  children  of  those  who  held  to  the  doctrine  of 
"  passive  obedience"  and  "  non-resistance"  declared  that  "  re- 
sistance to  tyrants  was  obedience  to  God."  The  cause  or  the 
causes  of  this  wonderful  transformation  of  opinion,  this  radi- 
cal change  in  mental  habitudes,  which  has  made  the  descend- 
ants of  the  supporters  of  royalty  the  originators  and  special 
champions  of  democracy  in  America,  have  been  already  con- 
sidered. 

The  presence  of  the  negro,  the  existence  in  then'  midst  of  a 
different  race,  was  and  is,  and  always  must  be,  a  test  that 
shows  us  the  insignificance  and  indeed  nothingness  of  those 
artificial  distinctions  which  elsewhere  govern  the  world,  and 
constitute  the  basis  of  the  political  as  well  as  the  social  order. 

The  importance  of  education,  of  cultivation,  the  refinement 
of  mind  and  manners,  the  possession  of  wealth,  of  family  influ- 
ence and  social  distinction,  may  all  be  duly  appreciated,  as  all 
have  their  value  or  social  consideration,  but  where  there  is  a 
natural  substratum  of  society,  where  a  different  and  subordi- 
nate race  are  in  juxtaposition,  where  negroes  exist  in  any  con- 
siderable number  and  in  natural  relation  to  the  whites,  then  it 
naturally  follows  that  the  great  natural  distinctions  fixed  for- 
ever by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  become  the  dividing  hues 
and  the  fixed  landmarks  of  the  social  order. 

This  radical  change  in  the  mental  habits  of  all  brought  face 
to  face  with  the  negro ;  this  instinctive  consciousness  of  their 
own  natural  equality  that  accompanied  their  perception  of  the 
negro's  inferiority ;  in  short,  this  development  of  the  democratic 
idea  to  Avhich  Mr.  Jefferson  gave  such  grand  ex])ression  in  the 
Declaration  if  Independence,  was  and  is  accompanied  by  cor- 


284  NORTH     AND    SOUTH. 

responding  uniformity  or  harmony  of  interests.  Agriculture, 
labor,  production,  was  and  is  the  one  great  dominating  inter- 
est of  Virginia  and  of  all  other  communities  made  up  of  these 
diverse  social  elements.  It  is  impossible  to  divide  the  interests 
of  "  master"  and  "  slave" — of  the  white  man  and  negro — 
when  placed  in  natural  relation  to  each  other.  It  is  the 
utmost  interest  of  the  master  to  treat  his  "  slave"  kindly,  to 
care  for  him  in  sickness,  to  feed  him  well,  and  not  to  overwork 
or  abuse  him,  and  it  is  the  utmost  interest  of  the  latter  to  be 
faithful  to  the  former.  It  is  a  sort  of  partnership,  a  species 
of  socialism,  when  the  brain  of  one  being  and  the  hands  of 
fifty  other  beings  labor  for  the  common  good,  for  the  general 
welfare ;  and  though  possible  exceptions  are  found  where  a 
brutal  master  beats  and  abuses  his  people,  or  a  worthless 
"  slave"  runs  off  and  hides  in  the  swamp,  both  alike  injure 
themselves,  the  master  gets  less  work  from  his  "  slave,"  and 
the  "  slave"  brings  upon  himself  a  corresponding  evil.  The 
so-called  "  non-slaveholder,"  if  an  agriculturist,  has  the  same 
interest ;  he  is  also  a  producer,  and  can  not  separate  his  inter- 
ests from  the  "  slaveholder,"  which,  perhaps,  he  was  himself 
yesterday,  and  may  be  again  to-morrow.  If  he  be  a  mechanic, 
a  lawyer,  physician,  or  merchant,  then,  though  not  identified 
as  a  producer  with  the  "  slaveholder"  or  "  non-slaveholder," 
and  in  a  sense  may  be  said  to  have  different  interests,  these 
interests  do  not  and  can  not  conflict  with  the  former,  unless, 
as  in  the  Northern  States,  government  is  called  on  to  "  pro- 
tect labor."  But  as  government  is  confined  to  its  legitimate 
sphere  in  Virginia  and  most  other  Southern  States,  and  pro- 
tects all,  without  favors  to  any,  there  is  then  no  conflict  of 
interests,  even  when  some  are  engaged  hi  widely  different  pur- 
suits from  the  one  great  common  interest  of  production. 
There  is,  therefore,  universal  harmony  in  Southern  society  ;  the 
interests  of  master  and  "  slave"  are  entirely  indivisible,  while 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  285 

those  ot  the  "  non-slaveholder,"  if  engaged  in  production,  are 
similar,  and  as  to  all  others,  when  they  do  not  involve  the 
government,  though  the  pursuits  or  interests  be  widely  differ- 
ent,  there  can  be  no  social  conflict. 

The  ideas  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  their  cotemporaries 
were  naturally  formed  by  these  circumstances,  and  after  the 
revolutionary  contest  was  over  and  a  common  government  was 
to  be  created,  they  naturally  proposed  a  system  in  harmony 
with  the  condition  they  represented.  The  North,  as  has  been 
said,  with  no  social  substratum  or  natural  distinctions,  desired 
a  government  based  on  artificial  distinctions,  those  separating 
classes,  the  same  substantially  as  in  England,  though,  of  course, 
dispensing  with  a  titled  class,  a  king,  and  laws  of  primogeni- 
ture. It  is  true  all  the  States  had  a  few  negroes,  and  they 
were  all  in  their  normal  condition  of  so-called  slavery,  but 
their  numbers  were  so  inconsiderable  that  they  did  not  influ- 
ence society  or  modify  the  mental  habits  of  the  Northern 
people.  All  over,  and  especially  in  the  New  England  States, 
the  same  ideas  were  reflected  by  the  representative  men  ;  they 
wanted  a  government  based  on  the  status  quo,  on  wealth,  that 
should  keep  power  m  the  hands  of  the  few  wTho  then  exercised 
it,  and  with  sufficient  force  to  hold  the  multitude  in  subjection. 
They  proposed  an  executive  for  life,  who  should  also  appoint 
the  governors  of  the  States,  that  senators  should  serve  ten 
years,  and  various  other  projects  of  similar  character — all  end- 
ing in  or  embodying  the  same  common  idea,  that  is,  a  govern- 
ment for  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many. 

The  Southern  men,  on  the  contrary,  proposed  a  government 
embodying  their  idea — the  idea  of  democracy,  and  that  should 
reflect  the  advanced  opinion  and  living  spirit  of  their  own 
society,  rather  than  a  thing  based  on  the  model  of  Britishism, 
and  involving  substantially  the  principles  of  the  old  European 
order.     While  they  duly  appreciated   education,  cultivation, 


286  NOETH     AND     SOUTH. 

and  other  accidental  social  distinctions,  those  whose  ideas  were 
advanced  by  juxtaposition  with  negroes,  or  with  this  natural 
line  of  demarcation,  would  not  listen  to  the  creation  of  a  cen- 
tral government  that  tended  in  any  respect  to  place  power  in 
the  hands  of  a  class,  or  that  enabled  the  few,  however  indi- 
rectly it  might  be,  to  govern  the  many.  The  contest,  both  in 
the  convention  and  before  the  people,  assumed  the  form  of  a 
contest  for  a  strong  or  a  weak  government — a  government 
that  should  be  supreme,  like  the  British  Parliament,  or  a  gov- 
ernment of  delegated  powers,  which,  while  carefully  defined, 
should  be  extremely  limited  in  its  functions  or  scope  of  action. 
But  back  of  all  this  were  the  fundamental  ideas — the  British 
and  the  American — the  spirit  of  the  old  societies  and  the  spirit 
of  the  new  order — of  British  oligarchy  and  of  American 
democracy. 

Massachusetts  and  Virginia  were  respectively  the  head-quar- 
ters and  embodiments  of  this  conflict,  this  struggling  of  ideas, 
these  tendencies  to  return  to  the  past  or  to  advance  into  the 
future,  and  it  is  as  remarkable,  perhaps,  to  find  the  former 
arrayed  on  the  side  of  power  and  privilege,  as  that  the  descend- 
ants of  the  cavaliers  should  now  be  the  champions  of  demo- 
cracy, and  the  advocates  of  the  broadest  liberty.  But,  as  has 
been  observed,  our  ideas  are  the  results  of  accident,  our  opin- 
ions originate  in  the  circumstances  that  surround  us,  and 
therefore  while  the  mental  habits  of  the  North  were  only 
slightly  modified  from  those  of  the  mother  country,  those  of 
the  South,  under  wholly  different  conditions — conditions,  in 
fact,  utterly  unknown  to  the  English  mind — were  radicall 
different. 

The  Northern  masses,  as  has  been  remarked,  were  then 
ignorant  and  helpless,  and  the  agricultural  class,  though  ad- 
vanced considerably  beyond  the  same  class  in  England,  as  the 
tillers  of  the  soil  had  then  barely  escaped  from  the  old  feudal 


NORTH     AJSTD    SOUTH.  287 

slavery  or  serfdom,  were  utterly  powerless  and  without  defend- 
ers in  the  great  civil  contest  that  succeeded  the  revolution. 
As  against  the  advocates  of  strong  government — those  who 
represented  the  governing  class — they  could  make  no  resistance 
whatever,  except  a  physical  and  revolutionary  one.  The  right 
of  suffrage  was  very  limited,  and,  indeed,  as  in  England  at  this 
time,  property  and  not  population  was  the  basis  of  representa- 
tion, and  therefore  the  vast  majority  had  no  voice  nor  represen- 
tation whatever.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  obvious  and 
beyond  question  that  if  a  similar  state  of  things  had  existed  at 
the  South,  a  government  would  have  been  formed  on  the  British 
model — a  republic,  doubtless,  but  a  bastard  one — with  powers 
so  extensive  and  absolute  that,  as  we  now  witness  in  Europe, 
nothing  but  revolution  and  physical  force  could  ever  enable 
the  masses  to  overthrow  it  or  to  regain  their  natural  liberty. 

But  the  planters  of  the  South,  unlike  the  farmers  of  the 
North,  were  an  educated  class,  and  fully  competent  to  com- 
pete with  the  great  leaders  of  the  Northern  oligarchy.  Their 
ideas  were  widely  advanced  beyond  those  of  the  Northern 
farmer,  but  their  interests  were  identical — those  of  agriculture, 
of  production,  of  labor,  of  democracy,  of  manhood  against 
privilege,  and  therefore  they  naturally  fought  the  battle  against 
Strong  government  and  class  distinctions.  The  government 
actually  adopted  was,  with  the  exception  of  a  life  tenure  in 
its  judicial  department,  substantially  that  which  was  origin- 
ally advised  by  the  leading  minds  of  the  South,  and  which, 
instead  of  being  supreme  and  absolute  over  the  States,  as 
desired  by  the  Northern  leaders,  was,  with  certain  well-defined 
exceptions,  as  utterly  powerless  and  indeed  disconnected  with 
the  States  as  the  government  of  England,  or  any  other  foreign 
power.  And  perhaps  no  higher  or  more  patriotic  example  can 
be  found  in  all  history  than  that  of  the  graceful  assent  and  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Northern  leaders,  when  they  consented  to  adopt 


tfoJ  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

the  present  system.  As  has  been  said,  it  was  no  selfish  01 
base  spirit  that  prompted  their  desire  for  a  strong  government. 
They  saw  that  the  great  body  of  the  people  were  ignorant ; 
all  history  and  all  experience  warranted  them,  as  they  believed, 
in  retaining  power  in  the  hands  of  the  few  who  then  possessed 
it — in  a  word,  they  could  not  rise  above  the  circumstances  that 
surrounded  them,  or  act  otherwise  than  in  conformity  with 
their  mental  habits.  But  when  fairly  beaten  in  the  convention 
and  the  great  forum  of  popular  discussion — for  when  the  ideas 
of  Jefferson  and  other  Southern  leaders  were  brought  before 
the  Northern  masses,  thousands  of  earnest  and  enthusiastio 
apostles  of  these  new  and  glorious  truths  sprung  up  in  every 
direction — then  Hamilton  and  his  associates  generously  assented 
to  the  adoption  of  the  present  system,  and  became  its  warmest 
advocates.  They  in  no  respect  changed  their  views  of  govern- 
ment, but  they  became  convinced  that  these  views  were  then 
impracticable,  and  however  unquestioned  their  ascendency  at 
the  North,  that  the  Southern  States  would  never  consent  to 
any  union  on  such  basis,  and  as  a  federal  union  on  almost  any 
terms  was  essential  to  the  maritime  States,  they  had  the  mag- 
nanimity to  accede  to  the  Southern  or  democratic  view  em- 
bodied in  the  present  government,  and  to  become,  as  has  been 
said,  the  warmest  advocates  for  its  adoption  before  the  people. 
But  if  this  patriotic  and  high-minded  course  of*  Hamilton  and 
the  great  leaders  of  Northern  opinion,  which  thus,  it  may  be 
said,  secured  to  the  country  and  to  the  world  the  noblest  gov- 
ernment ever  known  in  human  annals,  is  worthy  of  the  esteem 
and  admiration  of  posterity,  what  a  stupendous  and  boundless 
benefit  Jefferson,  Madison,  George  Mason,  and  their  associ- 
ates, who  not  alone  assented  to,  but  who  originated  this  gov- 
ernment, have  conferred  upon  posterity,  and  indeed  the  race 
itself! 

For  the  first  time  in  human  history  the  grand  idea  of  equal- 


XOBTH    AND    SOUTH.  289 

ity,  of  an  equal  freedom  or  of  equal  rights,  was  declared  to  be 
the  sole  foundation  of  government,  and  made  the  vital  principle 
of  the  political  order,  the  starting-point  of  a  new  and  more 
glorious  civilization  than  was  ever  before  dreamed  of  in  the  an- 
nals of  mankind.  Christ  had  promulgated  the  Divine  command, 
"  do  unto  others  as  you  would  have  them  do  unto  you,"  or 
recognize  in  all  other  men  the  same  rights  that  you  claim  for 
yourselves ;  but  however  faithful  some  may  have  been  to  this 
command  in  a  religious  sense,  all  the  "  Christian"  governments 
that  have  ever  existed,  or  that  exist  now,  are  in  utter  conflict 
with  it,  and  therefore  the  government  created  in  1776,  which 
embodied  this  glorious  truth  and  clothed  it  with  the  flesh  and 
blood  and  body  and  bones  of  material  power,  is  unquestion- 
ably the  most  important  worldly  event  that  has  ever  hap- 
pened in  human  affairs.  The  revolt  against  England,  its 
success,  the  subsequent  independence,  the  creation  of  a  new 
government,  the  beginning  of  an  independent  national  exist- 
ence, might  all  occur  without  any  radical  change  of  principles 
or  ai*y  revolution  of  ideas,  as  indeed  it  is  certain  would  have 
been  the  case  if  the  views  of  Hamilton  and  other  Northern 
leaders  had  been  embodied  in  the  new  government.  But  the 
grand  idea  of  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  afterwards  embodied  in  the  federal  government,  was  the 
starting-point  of  a  revolution  the  greatest,  most  beneficent, 
most  radical,  and  most  important,  that  has  ever  happened  in 
the  history  of  the  race — a  revolution,  moreover,  that  has  gone 
on  ever  since,  and  must  continue  until  all  the  governments  of 
the  Old  World  are  overthrown,  and  society  reorganized  on  the 
basis  of  the  great,  indestructible,  and  immortal  truth  that 
underlies  our  own — that  fixed,  natural,  and  unchangeable  equal- 
ity which  God  has  stamped  forever  on  the  organism  of  the 
race.  If,  therefore,  we  compare  the  services  of  Jefferson, 
Madison,  and  their  associates  with  those  of  other  men  in  othei 

13 


290  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

times  or  other  lands,  it  will  be  seen  that  they  rise  to  a  dignity 
and  importance  immeasurably  greater  than  even  the  most  ele- 
vated and  most  glorious  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind 
How  paltiy,  in  comparison,  the  Barons  of  Runymede,  who 
overthrew  a  tyrant  king  that  had  oppressed  their  order  !  How 
mean  and  selfish  Brutus  and  his  fellow-conspirators,  when  slay- 
ing the  man  they  envied  as  well  as  feared !  How  insignificant 
even  Hampden  and  the  great  leaders  of  revolution  in  England, 
who  fought  to  defend  themselves  from  the  increasing  oppres- 
sion of  a  ruling  class,  when  compared  with  Jefferson  and  his 
associates,  who  proclaimed  an  idea  and  organized  a  basis  for 
the  freedom  of  the  race — for  the  equal  rights  of  all  whom  God 
had  made  equal ! 

But  great,  and,  when  compared  with  what  others  may  have 
done,  immense  as  may  be  the  benefits  conferred  by  Jefferson 
and  his  associates  on  mankind,  they  only  did  their  duty,  and 
honestly  represented  the  ideas  and  desires  of  their  constituen- 
cies. Or,  in  other  words,  they  merely  expressed  the  opinions 
and  reflected  the  mental  habits  that  had  their  origin  in  the 
social  condition,  and  followed  as  a  necessary  consequence  of 
juxtaposition  with  negroes.  If  there  had  been  no  negroes  in 
Virginia — no  widely  different  race  with  its  different  capacities 
and  different  wants  to  provide  for,  in  short,  if  there  had  been 
no  natural  distinctions,  then  those  accidental  and  artificial 
things — wealth,  education,  family  pride,  etc. — which  separate 
classes  would  have  remained  as  elsewhere,  the  basis  of  politi- 
cal as  well  as  social  order.  The  descendants  of  English  cava- 
liers, with  their  traditions  and  mental  habits,  would,  perhaps, 
be  somewhat  liberalized,  for  their  condition  was  widely 
changed  from  that  of  their  ancestors,  but  without  negroes, 
without  the  presence  of  natural  distinctions,  without  those 
lines  of  demarcation  fixed  forever  by  the  hand  of  God  for 
society  to  repose  upon,  they  would  have  remained  the  most 


NORTH     AND     SOUTH.  291 

aristocratic  community  in  America.  Neither  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, nor  any  of  the  great  controlling  minds  of  the  day,  would 
have  been  heard  of;  or,  at  all  events,  would  not  have  figured 
in  that  grand  role  where  history  has  always  placed  them — the 
authors  of  a  new  idea  and  the  founders  of  a  new  political  sys- 
tem. 

They  might  have  had,  as  Sir  Thomas  Moore  and  Algernon 
Sidney,  and,  indeed,  men  of  all  ages  have  had,  feeble  glimmer- 
ings of  the  great  truth  promulgated  in  1776.  All  who  belong 
to  the  race  or  species  are  created  equal ;  and  this  great,  fixed, 
and  eternal  fact,  embedded  in  the  physical  and  mental  organ- 
ism of  the  race,  has  always  been  dimly  perceived,  but  without 
juxtaposition  with  a  different  race,  without  the  actual  pres- 
ence of  the  negro,  without  the  constant  daily  perception  of 
thos*e  natural  distinctions  that  separate  races,  in  contrast  with 
the  artificial  distinctions  of  classes  of  their  own  race,  neither 
Jefferson  nor  any  one  else  could  have  risen  to  the  level  of  the 
grand  truth  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
They  might  have  been  distinguished  actors  in  the  great  drama 
of  independence,  but  that,  as  an  historical  event,  would  not 
have  differed  from  a  score  of  similar  events  where  one  people 
or  portion  of  a  people  have  separated  and  set  up  an  indepen- 
dent government.  The  overthrow  of  the  Moorish  dominion  in 
Spain — of  the  rule  of  the  Spaniards  in  Holland — and  the  recent 
independence  of  Belgium,  are  parallel  events,  and  many  others 
might  be  named  where  foreign  dominion  has  been  overthrown 
and  new  governments  set  up  without  resulting  in  any  change 
or  progress  of  ideas,  or  without  working  out  any  fundamental 
revolution  in  human  affairs.  And  if  Jefferson,  Madison,  and 
their  associates  had  had  the  same  mental  habits  as  Hamilton, 
Adams,  and  others  of  the  North,  it  is  obvious  that  independ- 
ence would  not  have  been  accompanied  by  a  revolution  in 
ideas.     As  has  been  said,  a  more  liberal  system  than  that  of 


292  NORTH     AND     SOUTH. 

the  mother  country  would  have  been  established,  but  a  new 
system,  a  radical  and  fundamental  change  in  the  political  order 
■ — a  new  starting-point  in  the  progress  of  the  race — -a  govern- 
ment founded  on  the  universal  equality  of  the  citizenship  as 
actually  established,  it  is  obvious  would  have  been  impossible. 
And  as  the  public  men  of  a  country  can  never  rise  above  the 
level  of  the  average  opinion  or  the  ordinary  mental  habits  of 
the  people,  it  is  equally  obvious  that  Jefferson  and  his  associ- 
ates would  never  have  done  so,  and  therefore,  if  there  had  not 
been  a  condition  of  things  that  gave  origin  to  new  ideas  and 
new  habits  of  thought  in  the  people  of  Virginia  and  elsewhere 
where  these  widely  different  social  elements  were  in  juxtaposi- 
tion, then  it  is  equally  obvious  that  the  world  would  never 
have  heard  of  them  in  1776,  and  whatever  time  and  circum- 
stances might  have  brought  about  in  the  future,  no  revolution 
at  that  time  would  have  been  possible. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  that  is  repeated  in  direct  terms 
which  has  been  rather  inferred  than  directly  stated.  The  pres- 
ence of  the  negro  on  this  continent,  our  juxtaposition  with  a 
cidely  different  and  inferior  race,  and  the  existence  of  natural 
distinctions  or  natural  lines  of  demarcation  in  human  society, 
originating  of  necessity  new  ideas  and  modes  of  thought,  has 
been  the  happiest  conjunction  that  has  ever  occurred  in  human 
affairs,  and  has  led  directly  to  the  establishment  of  a  new  sys- 
tem and  a  new  civilization  based  on  foundations  of  everlast- 
ing truth — the  legal  and  political  equality  of  the  race,  or  of  all 
tlwse  whom  the  Almighty  Creator  has  Himself  made  equal. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  ALLIANCE  OF  NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS. 

In  the  foregoing  chapter  it  has  been  shown  how  "  slavery," 
or  the  presence  of  the  negro  element  in  our  midst,  has  given 
origin  to  the  American  idea  of  democracy — to  more  expanded 
and  truthful  conceptions  of  our  true  relations  to  each  other — 
to  mental  habits  which  led  Mr.  Jefferson  to  promulgate  the 
grand  idea  of  equality  in  1776 — to  make  that  great  movement 
a  revolution  of  ideas  as  well  as  a  war  of  independence — to  ren- 
der the  latter  a  mere  preliminary  for  ushering  in  a  new  political 
system  based  on  the  equal  rights  of  citizenship  and  the  start- 
ing-point of  a  new  civilization  widely  and  radically  different  in 
its  fundamental  idea  from  anything  ever  before  knowm  in  the 
political  experience  of  mankind.  It  has  been  shown  that  Ham- 
ilton and  Jefferson,  the  respective  leaders  and  exponents  of  the 
opposing  ideas  and  tendencies  of  the  time,  merely  reflected  the 
mental  habits  that  belonged  to  the  different  social  conditions 
then  existing,  or  of  the  different  constituencies  which  they  rep- 
resented, and  after  the  great  contest  for  independence  which  they 
passed  through  harmoniously  was  closed  and  a  new  system  of 
government  was  to  be  created,  that  the  ideas  of  Jefferson  gen- 
erally prevailed  and  the  present  government  embodying  these 
ideas  was  established. 

It  has  been  shown,  moreover,  that  both  of  these  great  men 
and  those  who  acted  with  them  were  equally  honest  and  equally 
patriotic ;  that  neither,  nor  any  of  them  could  rise  above  the 
level  of  opinion  in  their  respective  sections,  for  then  they  would 


294  THE     ALLIANCE     OF 

no  longer  have  been  representative  men  or  able  to  influence  the 
people;  that  the  opinions  of  Hamilton  reflected  the  mental 
habits  of  the  North  which  clung  to  the  forms  and  spirit  of  the 
British  system  founded  on  artificial  distinctions,  while  Jeffer- 
son, reflecting  with  equal  fidelity  the  mental  habits  that  orig- 
inate in  a  different  social  condition — where  a  subordinate  race 
is  in  juxtaposition — advocated  a  democratic  system  resting  on 
the  fixed  and  indestructible  laws  of  nature.  And  in  view  of 
all  these  historical  facts  and  inductive  facts  the  conclusion  was 
deemed  irresistible  that  the  presence  of  the  negro  element  in 
our  midst,  the  existence  of  a  natural  substratum  in  the  social 
elements  which  thus  secured  the  liberty  of  our  own  race — the 
legal  and  political  equality  of  white  men — was  the  happiest 
event  or  conjunction  of  circumstances  that  has  ever  happened 
in  the  history  of  mankind.  But  while  the  great  northern  lead- 
ers thus  consented  to  the  establishment  of  a  democratic  system 
they  were  driven  on  by  their  own  tendencies  as  well  as  the 
mental  habits  of  their  people  to  neutralize  its  forces  and  to 
pervert  its  spirit.  At  that  period  suffrage  was  extremely  lim- 
ited, while  the  agricultural  class  in  the  Northern  States — com- 
pared with  the  present — may  be  said  to  have  been  extremely 
ignorant. 

The  northern  or  federal  party  were  thus  enabled  to  get 
possession  of  the  new  government  and  to  give  it  such  direc- 
tion as  their  opinions  and  interests  doubtless  seemed  to  de- 
mand. The  President  himself — the  illustrious  Washington- 
was  without  decided  political  convictions.  His  instincts  and 
his  family  traditions,  it  is  believed,  inclined  him  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  northern  party,  while  the  local  tendencies  of  opin- 
ion— the  general  mental  habits  of  the  Virginians  to  regard  the 
distinctions  of  race  as  the  legitimate  basis  of  political  order — 
generally  restrained  him,  and  in  the  mighty  conflict  of  opinion 
kept  him  in  a  neutral  position.     He  formed  his  cabinet  out  of 


NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS.  295 

wholly  incongrous  materials,  made  Jefferson  Secretary  of  State, 
and  Hamilton  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  selecting  othei 
exponents  of  the  conflicting  opinions,  sought  to  neutralize  the 
contending  forces  by  an  equal  selection  of  subordinates  from  the 
hostile  camps. 

The  public  credit,  the  restoration  of  commercial  confidenc 
was  the  first  and  most  pressing  want  of  the  country  as  well  as 
of  the  new  government,  and  in  this  Hamilton  found  a  pretext 
for  adopting  the  British  system  of  finance  which  he  foresaw 
would  enable  his  party  to  recover  to  a  great  extent  the  ground 
lost  in  the  creation  of  the  government,  and  in  practice,  what- 
ever might  be  the  theory  entertained,  restore  it  or  closely 
approximate  it  to  his  darling  model — that  favorite  British  sys- 
tem which  he  and  his  associates  believed  to  be  an  embodiment 
of  political  wisdom.  The  idea  of  the  British  aristocracy  that 
government  is  an  instrument  designed  for  their  benefit  was 
deeply  implanted  in  the  northern  mind,  and  is  so  still. 

In  England  it  is  a  practice  which  the  idea  has  simply  orig- 
inated in.  Official  employments,  pensions  and  special  legisla- 
tion or  monopolies  in  England,  embrace  all  or  nearly  all  the 
ruling  class,  and  therefore,  the  idea  that  government  is  estab- 
lished for  then-  benefit  necessarily  follows.  This  idea  of 
government  is  generally  embraced  by  the  northern  mind  even 
in  our  own  times,  and  the  habit  of  looking  to  this  vast  and 
beneficent  power  as  the  source  of  pecuniary  benefits  to  the 
people,  if  not  to  a  class,  is  almost  universal  among  the  northern 
people. 

Hamilton,  brought  up  under  the  British  system,  was  deeply 
imbued  with  it,  and,  placed  in  power,  it  was  natural  enough 
that  he  and  his  associates  should  construe  the  Constitution  in  a 
way  to  give  it  effect.  The  state  debts  that  were  contracted  for 
carrying  on  the  war  were  assumed  by  the  new  government  and 
formed  a  basis  for  a  national  bank  which  was  soon  established, 


206  THE     ALLIANCE     OP 

and  the  rapid  restoration  of  public  credit  that  followed  th« 
restoration  of  public  order  and  a  settled  society  in  a  young 
and  vigorous  country  was  claimed  by  the  federal  writers  as  a 
proof  of  the  wisdom  of  their  policy  and  the  extraordinary 
ability  of  their  leader. 

Mr.  Jefferson  opposed  this  policy  from  the  beginning  in  all 
its  aspects — the  adoption  of  the  British  system  of  finance,  the 
assumption  of  state  debts,  the  creation  of  a  national  bank,  in 
short,  the  entire  programme  of  federal  policy.  He  held  with  the 
state-rights  democracy  of  our  day,  that  the  central  government 
was  a  factitious  and  limited  government,  whose  powers  were 
derived,  not  from  the  collective  people  but  from  the  people  of 
the  several  or  United  States,  that  the  Constitution  should  be 
literally  construed,  and  the  practice  under  it  strictly  confined 
to  the  plainly  enumerated  objects,  and,  therefore,  that  the  cre- 
ation of  a  national  bank,  assumption  of  state-debts,  etc.,  were 
unconstitutional  in  principle  and  dangerous  in  practice. 

Hamilton  and  his  party,  on  the  contrary,  held  that  the 
financial  policy  they  adopted  was  not  only  the  wisest  that 
was  possible  under  the  circumstances,  but  that  the  consequen- 
ces likely  to  follow — the  consolidation  of  power  and  prestige 
of  the  central  government — would  be  of  the  greatest  possible 
value  to  the  people.  Indeed,  the  old  contest  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  Virginia — the  conflict  of  ideas — the  warfare  of 
widely  different  mental  habits  which  preceded  and  ushered  in 
the  government  were  renewed  and  accompanied  by  a  bitter- 
ness of  spirit  quite  unknown  in  the  former  case.  Hamilton, 
impelled  by  the  opinions  of  the  North,  assumed  in  practice,  if 
not  in  theory  always,  that  the  central  government  sprung  from 
the  collective  or  the  American  people  instead  of  the  people  of 
the  States,  and  was  almost  unlimited  in  its  powers,  and  he 
doubtless  believed  that  the  more  extended  its  powers,  the 
safer   and   more  stable   would  become  the   country   and  the 


NOBTHEEN    AND    SOUTIIEEN    PEODTTCEE8.      297 

more  prosperous  the  people.  He  had  failed  to  obtain  such  a 
government  as  he  especially  desired — a  government  after  the 
English  model — republican  in  form  but  aristocratic  in  fact,  a 
government  based  on  those  artificial  distinctions  which  the 
mental  habits  of  the  North  were  accustomed  to  regard  as  the 
only  safe  foundation,  and  now  in  power,  with  the  prestige  of 
the  great  name  of  Washington  to  support  his  policy,  he  doubt- 
less believed  himself  a  patriot,  and  as  performing  vital  service 
to  his  country  and  to  posterity,  when  he  thus  construed  the 
Constitution  and  consolidated  the  powers  of  the  federal  system. 

Indeed,  the  fear  of  the  people — of  a  reckless  and  dis- 
orderly multitude — was  the  abiding  sentiment  of  the  great 
northern  leaders,  and  the  consolidation,  power,  and  grandeur 
of  a  central  government  that  should  restrain  them  was  the 
object  of  all  their  efforts.  Thus,  the  very  objects  the  federal- 
ists aimed  at — doubtless  from  patriotic  motives,  for  there  being 
no  laws  of  primogeniture  there  was  no  permanent  class  to  be  ben- 
efited by  their  policy — were  the  very  things  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  his  friends  contemplated  as  the  greatest  danger  to  the 
country.  Hamilton  desired  to  construe  the  Constitution  in  a 
way  to  build  up  an  enormous  central  power  that  should  hold 
in  check  the  tendencies  to  disruption  and  disorder,  while  Jef- 
ferson believed  that  the  greater  the  assumption  and  the  con- 
solidation of  power  in  the  federal  system  the  greater  the  dan- 
ger to  the  freedom  of  the  States  and  to  the  people. 

Or,  in  other  words,  the  federalists  believed  that  the  more  the 
central  power  was  enlarged  the  greater  the  scope  and  strength 
of  the  federal  government — the  more  certain  were  the  States 
to  be  kept  from  disunion  and  the  restless  multitudes  from 
anarchy,  while  Jefferson  and  his  party  believed  that  this 
assumption  of  power  in  the  central  government  would  result 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  government  itself  if  there  was  no 
other  way  of  obtaining  redress  and  of  preserving  on  the  part 

13* 


298  THE     ALLIANCE     OP 

of  the  States  and  the  people  of  the  States  the  liberties  which 
they  fought  for  in  1776.  Such  was  the  great  civil  contest  that 
sprung  up  under  the  administration  of  Washington,  but  which 
was  constantly  restrained  by  the  presence  of  that  great  man, 
who,  without  any  very  decided  leanings  as  regarded  the  parties 
to  it,  was,  moreover,  eminently  practical  and  earnestly  disposed 
to  favor  conciliation  and  peace  rather  than  commit  himself  to 
the  abstract  opinions  of  either  side.  It  was  only,  therefore, 
during  the  succeeding  administration  of  Adams  that  this  fun- 
damental conflict  of  ideas — this  conflict  which  involved  the 
very  foundations  of  government  itself,  and  which,  back  of  the 
immediate  actors  that  figured  in  the  scene,  originated  in  the 
different  mental  habits  that  spring  of  necessity  from  different 
social  conditions,  reached  its  culmination  and  prepared  the  way 
for  that  final  solution  which  the  great  civil  revolution  of  1800 
afterwards  accomplished. 

The  federalists,  or,  more  properly,  the  centralists,  had  con- 
strued the  Constitution  in  a  way  to  make  the  government  in 
practice  substantially  what  they  believed  it  should  have  been 
in  theory.  They  had  adopted  the  British  system  of  finance, 
had  created  a  national  debt  and  a  national  bank,  which,  as  in 
England,  was  to  be  the  agency  for  the  deposit  and  disburse- 
ment of  the  public  revenue,  and,  from  the  necessities  of  the 
case,  a  vast  and  overshadowing  monopoly  which  was  to  hold  the 
credit  of  the  States,  and  of  every  individual  in  the  States,  at  its 
mercy.  In  feet,  the  States  were  rapidly  sinking  into  mere  de- 
pendencies and  subject  provinces  of  the  vast  and  overshadowing 
power  of  the  central  government,  which,  not  content  with  its 
usurpations  over  the  States — tending,  in  practice,  to  almost 
obliterate  the  lines  of  State  sovereignty — even  sought  to 
strike  down  the  liberty  of  the  individual  citizen,  and  in  its 
alien  and  sedition  laws  to  exercise  absolute  powers.  These 
laws  authorized  the  president  to  imprison  and  punish  citizens 


ITOBTEEEN    AND    SOUTHERN     PRODUCERS.     299 

and  others  as  his  fears  or  caprices  might,  dictate,  with  few,  if 
any,  greater  safeguards  for  the  citizen  than  in  absolute  govern- 
ments of  the  Old  World. 

The  federal  party  embodied  the  British  idea  of  government, 
and  their  notions  of  liberty  differed  little,  if  any,  from  those  of 
the  mother  country.  Liberty  in  England  consists  in  the  equal 
protection  of  person  and  property  in  an  ordinary  sense,  but, 
as  liberty,  in  fact,  consists  in  an  equal  citizenship  or  an  equal 
voice  in  the  creation  of  laws  that  all  are  called  on  to  obey,  of 
course  those  who  have  no  vote  or  voice  in  these  laws  are,  to 
that  extent,  slaves.  It  was  the  policy  of  the  federalists  to 
limit  this  great  natural  right  of  suffrage,  and  in  all  the  States 
where  they  were  in  the  ascendency  they  sought  :o  do  so,  as 
indeed  was  legitimate  and  consistent  with  their  fundamental 
idea  of  government.  Equally  consistent  and  legitimate  was 
their  habit  of  expecting  pecuniary  benefits  from  government, 
for  this,  as  has  been  said,  was  the  practice  in  England,  and  the 
idea  or  theory  that  sprung  from  it  was  deeply  engraved  on 
the  northern  mind.  While  the  federalists,  therefore,  sought 
to  consolidate  power  in  the  hands  of  the  federal  government 
and  to  weaken  the  States,  all  the  selfish  and  mercenary  inter- 
ests of  the  day  were  naturally  attracted  to  a  party  whose  pub- 
he  policy  thus  favored  and  invited  their  cooperation. 

The  conflict  of  labor  and  capital — the  frightful  antagonism 
between  those  whose  labor  produces  all  wealth  and  those  who 
own  the  wealth  produced  by  past  generations  of  laborers — is  at 
the  bottom  of  all  the  revolutions  and  civil  commotions  of 
modern  times,  for  it  involves  the  whole  subject  of  government, 
as  well  as  all  those  mighty  social  evils  which  so  disfigure  and 
deform  European  society.  In  England  this  conflict  has,  in  one 
sense,  reached  its  utmost  limit — while  in  another  respect  it 
may  be  said  to  be  least  active  or  less  palpable  than  anywhere 
else. 


800  THE     ALLIANCE     OF 

The  few  who  own  the  wealth  produced  by  past  generation* 
are  the  wealthiest  in  the  world,  while  the  many  who  produce 
all  the  wealth  of  the  present  are  undoubtedly  the  poorest ! 

Those  who  produce  every  thing  enjoy  nothing,  while  those 
who  produce  nothing  enjoy  every  thing  I  A  political  econo- 
mist of  great  eminence  has  made  an  estimate  of  the  present 
wealth  of  England,  and  declared  that,  if  equally  divided,  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  England  would  have  ten  thousand 
pounds,  or  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  yet  supposes  that  there 
are  ten  millions  of  people  who  never  own  a  dollar  beyond  their 
daily  support !  The  land  is  owned  by  some  thirty-five  thou- 
sand proprietors,  many  of  whom  have  large  parks  containing 
many  thousand  acres,  filled  with  game  and  left  untilled,  while 
millions  of  men  and  women  of  their  own  race — their  own  kind 
— are  without  a  single  foot  of  that  which  God  designed  for  the 
common  sustenance  and  comfort  of  all !  Education,  moral 
development,  and  happiness  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  these 
things,  of  course ;  indeed,  it  is  a  truth  that  should  always  be 
recognized  when  estimating  the  well-being  of  masses  of  men, 
that  their  moral  and  physical  well-being  are  necessarily  in- 
separable. 

No  one,  however  ignorant  or  prejudiced  in  favor  of  British- 
ism, or  "  British  liberty,"  can  suppose  for  a  moment  that  such 
stupendous  results  as  these,  or  that  such  a  social  condition  as 
that  of  England,  could  ever  be  brought  about  by  natural  causes. 
They  are  all  of  the  same  race,  with  the  same  natural  capacities 
as  well  as  wants,  and  if  there  be  any  difference,  or  any  natural 
inferiority,  it  is  within  the  governing  class,  whose  intermarriage 
among  the  landed  aristocracy  has  deteriorated  their  blood,  and 
reduced  them  below  the  normal  standard. 

It  is  the  government,  therefore — the  contrivance  or  political 
machine  which  has  worked  out  these  tremendous  results — that 
has  dug  this  mighty  chasm  between  beings  whom  the  Almighty 


NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS.   901 

has  created  alike,  and  therefore  forbidden  any  governmental 
distinction. 

The  notion  that  government  should  benefit  their  condition, 
therefore — should  make  them  richer  and  happier — originates  in 
the  fact  itself  in  England,  and  those  who,  like  the  federalists, 
formed  all  their  ideas  of  government  after  the  British  model, 
sought  naturally  enough  to  wield  it  for  these  supposed  bene 
ficent  purposes.  There  was  the  same  social  conflict,  in  a  de- 
gree, at  the  North  as  in  England.  It  was  the  interest  of  the 
capitalist  or  employer  to  get  all  the  labor  possible  with  as 
little  expense  as  might  be,  while  the  laborer  would  naturally 
6eek  to  get  as  high  wages  as  possible,  and  in  return  give  as 
little  labor  as  possible. 

The  capitalists,  the  men  of  wealth,  the  professional  classes, 
merchants,  indeed  all  classes  of  Northern  society,  except  the 
agricultural  class,  were  attracted  to  the  federal  party,  and,  in 
addition,  speculators  and  projectors  of  every  kind  were  natu- 
rally drawn  in  the  same  direction.  These  classes,  embracing 
all  the  wealth,  and  cultivation,  and  social  influence  of  the  day, 
rallied  in  support  of  the  federal  party,  which,  with  the  govern- 
ment in  its  hands,  with  the  prestige  of  power,  and  nearly  all 
of  the  intellectual  men  of  the  time  on  its  side,  was  irresistible,  so 
far  as  the  North  was  concerned.  The  producing  classes,  the 
farmers  and  laborers — those  only  that  were  naturally  opposed 
to  its  policy,  or  whose  real  interests  were  in  conflict  with  its 
policy — were  then  comparatively  helpless.  The  right  of  suf- 
frage was  exceedingly  limited,  and  though  the  agricultural 
class  largely  outnumbered  the  others,  they  were  ignorant, 
without  guides,  and  indeed  quite  helpless  in  the  grasp  of  the 
federal  leaders.  The  federal  party,  as  has  been  stated,  had,  by 
so  construing  the  constitution,  usurped  power  that  rendered 
the  government  substantially  such  as  they  originally  desired  to 
establish,   and  the  masses,   without  intelligent  leaders,  were 


S02  THE    ALLIANCE    OF 

powerless  to  resist.  And  any  one  intelligently  contemplating 
the  condition  of  things  in  the  Northern  States  during  the 
administration  of  the  elder  Adams,  must  be  irresistibly  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  masses — the  laboring  and  producing 
classes — were  wholly  unable  to  relieve  themselves  from  the 
oppressions  of  this  party,  short  of  a  physical  revolution  and  an 
appeal  to  arms.  They  were  largely  in  the  majority,  but  the 
right  of  suffrage  being  mainly  confined  to  property-holders,  la- 
borers, mechanics,  artisans,  etc.,  were,  as  in  England,  disfran- 
chised ;  while  the  agricultural  classes,  though  greatly  advanced, 
no  doubt,  beyond  the  same  classes  in  the  Old  World,  were 
yet  extremely  illiterate  and  ignorant,  and  therefore  powerless. 
The  policy  of  the  federalists  was  absolutely  the  same  as  in  Eng- 
land— that  is,  the  government  was  a  machine  or  instrument 
through  which  the  few  who  produce  nothing  were  to  enjoy 
every  thing,  and  the  many,  who  produce  every  thing,  were  to 
enjoy  nothing.  In  a  new  country,  with  cheap  lands  and  virgin 
soils,  it  might  be  many  centuries  before  the  awful  results  now 
manifested  in  England  could  be  worked  out,  but  the  process 
was  the  same — the  same  causes  were  in  operation,  and  the 
same  results  would  surely  follow — differing  only  in  degree. 

Nor,  had  the  Union  been  confined  to  the  Northern  States, 
was  there  any  reasonable  prospect  before  the  masses  of  over- 
throwing the  oppression  foisted  on  them,  by  a  resort  to  revo- 
lution and  physical  force.  They  were  the  immense  majority, 
it  is  true,  but  without  leaders,  without  education  or  intelli- 
gence, or  prestige  of  any  kind,  their  doom  was  sealed,  their 
subjection  certain,  their  slavery  inevitable.  It  would  have 
been  the  old  story  over  again — the  revolt  of  the  people  against 
their  oppressors  in  1716  to  be  again  subjected  to  other  oppres- 
sions in  1796 — a  change  from  one  master  to  another;  though, 
doubtless,  as  all  the  efforts  of  the  race  have  been  in  the  direc- 
tion of  progress,  a  certain  advance  towards  a  better  condi- 


NOETHEBN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS.   303 

tion.  But,  fortunately  for  mankind  and  the  cause  of  free 
institutions,  a  widely  different  state  of  things  existed  in  Vir- 
ginia and  other  States  in  the  South. 

As  fully  considered  in  another  place,  the  negro  element  was 
here  stationary,  and  in  numbers  so  considerable  that  rules  and 
regulations  were  necessary  in  regard  to  it.  It  had  to  be  pro- 
vided for ;  its  capacities,  its  wants,  its  necessities,  in  short, 
harmonized  with  the  wants  and  well-being  of  the  dominant 
race.  The  colonial  legislatures,  as  the  State  legislatures  of  the 
present  day,  were  constantly  called  on  to  enact  laws  and 
establish  regulations  for  this  subordinate  social  element,  as 
well  as  for  themselves,  and  therefore  habits  of  thought  grew  up 
that  gave  them  widely  different  notions  of  government  from 
those  of  the  people  in  the  North. 

There  was  no  social  conflict ;  all  had  the  same  interests,  and 
if  one  man  inherited  wealth,  and  another  had  nothing  but  his 
labor  to  depend  on,  they  never  came  in  conflict,  for  the  former 
never  sousrht  the  aid  of  the  government  to  benefit  himself  at 
the  expense  of  his  less  fortunate  neighbor.  In  the  North,  if  a 
citizen  inherited  ten  thousand  dollars,  he  invested  it  in  some 
special  corporation — a  bank,  a  manufacturing  company,  or  some- 
thing else — that  had  its  origin  in  special  legislation,  and  perhaps 
doubly  increased  his  income,  which,  of  course,  was  drawn 
from  the  laborer,  the  producer,  the  class  that  creates  all 
wealth. 

In  Virginia,  on  the  contrary,  if  a  citizen  inherited  ten  thou- 
sand dollars,  he  invested  it  in  lands,  in  the  industrial  capacities 
of  negroes,  in  short,  in  labor ;  and  though  he  may  never  have 
labored  an  hour  with  his  own  hands  himself,  he  became  of 
necessity  a  producer,  with  the  same  common,  universal,  and 
indivisible  interests  of  all  other  producers  and  laborers,  and 
therefore  never  sought  the  aid  of  government.  Indeed,  the 
government  could  not  nor  can  not  at  this  time  legislate  for  the 


804  THK     ALLIANCE     OF 

benefit — special  benefit — of  the  planter  of  tne  South,  or  the 
farmer  or  producer  at  the  North ;  and  from  the  day  it  was 
created  to  this  moment,  there  has  never  been  an  act  of  Con- 
gress or  of  the  federal  government  that  specifically  benefited 
the  South.  Congress  might,  it  is  true,  "  protect"  cotton  or 
wheat,  or  other  of  the  great  staples  which  the  producers  of 
both  sections  furnish,  but  it  would  be  a  "  protection"  quite  as 
useless  to  the  parties  interested  as  it  would  be  harmless  in  its 
results  to  other  classes  and  interests  among  us. 

The  clear  mind  of  Jefferson  grasped  these  bonds  of  indus- 
trial interest  between  the  southern  planter  and  northern  far- 
mer— the  slaveholder  of  the  South  and  the  laborer  of  the 
North — at  a  very  early  period,  and  declared  them  "  natural 
allies"  in  the  great  conflict  then  pending.  The  planter  or 
"  slaveholder"  of  the  South  asked  nothing  from  government  but 
its  protection.  He  had  grown  up  under  a  condition  of  things 
where  there  was  no  social  conflict  of  any  kind.  There  wer^  no 
opposing  interests — no  class  distinctions — nothing  to  appeal  to 
his  selfishness  or  to  blind  his  judgment.  Society  was  natur- 
ally divided,  not  into  the  rich  and  poor  as  elsewhere,  but  into 
whites  and  negroes,  and,  as  the  latter  was  owned  by  the  for- 
mer there  was  no  contradiction,  no  motive  or  possible  induce- 
ment to  employ  the  government  as  an  instrument  for  the 
special  benefit  of  any  body.  The  old  European  notion  of 
government,  therefore,  that  clung  and  still  clings  to  the  north- 
ern mind,  that  government  should  regulate  the  religion,  the 
commerce,  the  industry,  etc.,  of  the  country,  was  exploded, 
and  the  modern  and  true  American  idea  that  it  should  simply 
protect  all  alike  and  give  favor  to  none  became  the  general 
idea  of  the  populations  of  the  South ;  and,  indeed,  of  the  great 
agricultural  populations  of  the  Central  States  so  far  as  it  then 
could  find  expression.  And,  when  this  was  the  general  notion 
of  Virginia  and  other  States  at  the  South  as  regards  their  own 


HOKTHEEN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS.  805 

legitimate  government,  of  course  they  would  not  permit  the 
federal  and  factitious  government  resting  on  delegated  and 
strictly  defined  limitations  of  power,  to  be  perverted  in  its 
spirit  and  transformed  by  its  practice  into  a  machine,  as  in 
England,  to  benefit  others  at  their  expense.  The  Southern 
States,  therefore,  especially  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  met  in 
their  legislatures,  consulted  with  other  States,  and,  in  the  cel- 
ebrated Kentucky  and  Virginia  resolutions  of  1798,  made  a 
declaration  of  principles,  and  pledged  themselves  to  a  policy 
that  will  always  serve  as  the  true  landmarks  of  our  State  and 
federative  systems  so  long  as  the  republic,  or,  indeed,  Amer- 
ican freedom  itself  lasts  to  bless  the  world  and  illuminate  man- 
kind. 

These  resolutions  offered  a  common  platform  for  the  agri- 
cultural States — for  the  producing  classes  of  all  sections — for 
the  masses,  the  millions,  in  short,  for  all  men  who  believed  ;in 
the  American  idea  of  government  and  demanded  equal  rights 
for  all  and  favors  for  none. 

Thus  the  Middle  States,  the  great  agricultural  populations 
of  the  North,  who,  unaided  and  alone  were  powerless  in  the 
grasp  of  the  federal  party,  led  as  that  party  was  by  the  intel- 
lect, and  sustained  by  the  wealth  and  social  prestige  of  the 
North,  found  themselves  naturally  allied  with  the  agricultural 
populations  of  the  South  who  were  led  by  men  quite  the 
equals  in  general  attainments,  and  vastly  the  superiors  in  polit- 
ical knowledge,  of  the  great  northern  leaders.  These  men — Jef- 
ferson, Madison,  George  Clinton,  and  their  associates — had 
already  conquered  in  the  great  intellectual  contest  that  bad 
preceded  the  creation  of  the  government,  and  though  in  the 
great  battle  now  pending,  the  centralists  occupied  vantage 
ground,  for  their  banks,  state  debts,  and  consolidated  federal 
powers,  attracted  to  their  standards  all  the  selfish  interests  and 
mercenary  influences  in  the  country,  the  former  again  carried 


306  THE     ALLIANCE     OF 

the  day,  and  in  the  great  civil  revolution  of  1800  restored  the 
government,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  expressed  it,  to  "  the  republican 
tack."  This  restoration  of  the  federal  government  to  its  orig- 
inal purposes  was  surely  second  only  to  the  revolution  of  1776 
in  importance,  and  without  it  it  is  obvious  that  the  fruits  of 
the  former  must  measurably  have  been  lost.  As  has  been  seen, 
the  northern  masses  were  at  that  time  wholly  unable  to  con- 
tend with  the  opposing  minority  which  embraced  within  its 
ranks  the  wealth,  talent,  education,  and  social  influence  of  the 
day.  And  though  largely  in  the  majority  as  regards  numbers, 
it  was  powerless  even  as  regards  physical  force,  for  it  was 
without  leaders  to  direct  its  energies  or  to  cope  successfully 
with  that  brilliant  array  of  able  and  accomplished  civilians  and 
soldiers  that  gathered  about  the  administration  and  directed 
the  councils  of  the  federal  party.  If  the  rule  of  the  federal- 
ist^ in  the  course  of  time  became  personally  oppressive — if  that 
personal  "  freedom"  which  in  England  permits  the  subject  tG 
enjoy  locomotion  as  he  pleases  and  protects  his  person  from 
violence  were  stricken  down,  then  it  may  be  supposed  that 
the  northern  masses  would  have  resisted,  and,  perhaps,  in  the 
progress  of  the  future  have  overthrown  such  government. 

But  the  government  actually  established  by  the  federalists — 
by  the  false  construction  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  usurpa- 
tions in  practice  which  would  have  kept  the  producing  classes 
— the  toiling  millions — in  the  same  or  similar  subjection  to  a 
ruling  oligarchy,  as  is  now  witnessed  in  England,  and  which, 
in  the  course  of  time,  would  render  them  equally  abject,  pov 
erty-stricken,  ignorant,  and  miserable,  would  seem  to  be,  in 
view  of  all  the  circumstances  then  existing,  beyond  their  power 
to  change  or  reform  by  a  civil  revolution  like  that  which  did 
occur  in  1800,  or  to  overthrow  by  the  strong  hand  of  physical 
force.  The  great  civil  revolution,  therefore,  when  able  and 
accomplished  statesmen  of  the  South,  the  equals  in  talent,  and 


NORTHERN  AND  SOUTHERN  PRODUCERS.  307 

vastly  superior  to  any  class  in  Christendom  in  political  knowl- 
edge, led  the  northern  producing  classes  through  the  great  con- 
flict then  pending,  and  overthrowing  the  centralists  restored 
the  government  to  its  original  purity  and  simplicity,  must  be 
deemed,  as  has  been  said,  only  second  in  importance  to  the 
great  event  of  1776. 

And  the  social  condition  in  the  South,  the  so-called  slavery, 
which  invariably  renders  the  southern  planter  the  natural 
ally  of  the  northern  farmer,  must  be  considered,  as  it  obvi- 
ously is  in  fact,  the  sole,  or  at  all  events  the  leading  cause  for 
the  successful  working  of  democratic  institutions,  as  it  was 
originally  the  sole  and  unquestionable  cause  that  originated 
the  great  American  idea  of  government  embodied  in  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  Nor  are  the  consequences  of  that 
condition  of  so-called  slavery — the  existence  of  a  subordinate 
social  element  at  the  South  which  has  thus,  with  more  or  less 
directness,  worked  out  the  equality,  freedom,  and  happiness 
of  the  laboring  classes  of  the  North — limited  to  our  own  land 
or  to  our  own  people.  As  has  been  observed,  the  conflict  of 
capital  and  labor  is  the  great  question  of  the  day — the  question 
that  is  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  European  revolutions  of  mod- 
ern times,  and  its  solution  must,  of  necessity,  involve  the  de- 
struction of  every  government  now  in  existence  except  our 
own.  Capital  in  the  old  world  has  the  education  and  intelli- 
gence as  well  as  the  government  on  its  side  against  the  people, 
and  the  simple  fact  that,  in  half  of  the  American  States,  capital 
and  labor  are  united,  inseparable,  and  indissoluble,  is  of  tran- 
scendent importance  to  the  future  liberation  of  the  laboring 
millions  of  Europe. 

Here — for  the  first  time  in  the  experience  of  the  race — wealth, 
cultivation,  and  intellectual  power  are  arrayed  on  the  side  of 
production  and  in  defence  of  the  rights  of  labor,  not  by  a 
warfare  on  northern  capital,  as  it  is  sometimes  charged,  but  by 


308  THE     ALLIANCE     OF     NORTHERN,     ETC. 

demanding  that  government  shall  not  legislate  for  the  latter  at 
the  expense  of  the  former.  Nor  is  the  subordinate  element — 
the  inferior  race  in  our  midst,  which,  in  the  providence  of  God 
has  thus  been  made  the  mediate  or  immediate  cause  of  such 
vast  and  boundless  benefit  to  the  freedom,  progress,  and  well 
being  of  the  superior  race — without  participation  in  these  ben- 
efits. God  has  designed  all  His  creatures  for  happiness,  and  tins 
happiness  is  always  secured  when  they  are  in  their  true  posi- 
tion, and  in  natural  relations  to  each  other ;  and  when  the  con- 
dition of  the  negro  is  compared  with  his  African  state — the 
existing  population  with  their  African  progenitors — then  it  is 
seen  that  the  progress  and  happiness  of  the  inferor  has 
inarched  pari  passu  with  those  of  the  superior  race. 


%a 


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/v%. 


NEGRO 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

There  are  something  like  twelve  millions  of  negroes  in 
America,  on  the  mainland  and  the  adjacent  islands — as  large 
a  proportion,  perhaps,  in  view  of  their  industrial  adaptation,  as 
there  are  of  the  Caucasian  or  dominant  race ;  and,  therefore, 
whatever  may  be  the  contingencies  or  the  wants  of  the  future, 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  necessity  now  for  any  further  im- 
portation of  these  people.  Of  the  twelve  millions,  there  aie 
between  four  and  five  millions  in  their  normal  condition  at  the 
South.  There  are,  perhaps,  half  a  million  of  so-called  froe 
negroes,  about  equally  divided  between  Worth  and  South. 
There  are  about  four  millions  in  Brazil,  Cuba,  and  Porto  Rico  of 
so-called  slaves,  but  really  in  a  widely  different  condition  from 
that  common  to  the  South.  Finally,  there  are  between  three 
and  four  millions  of  so-called  free  negroes  in  the  tropics,  in 
Jamaica,  Hayti,  and  the  other  islands,  with  some  thousands, 
however,  scattered  about  the  coast  towns,  and  in  the  terra  call- 
ente  of  the  mainland.  The  free  negro,  in  the  American  Union, 
as  has  been  stated,  is  destined  to  extinction.  It  is  only  a 
question  of  time,  when  this  doom  will  be  accomplished.  The 
census  returns,  and  the  universal  experience,  recognize  this 
deplorable  truth ;  but  beyond  them,  and  independent  of  any 
demonstration  whatever,  their  extinction  is  a  necessity — is  as 
legitimate  and  unavoidable  as  any  other  effect  or  effects  linked  by 
inevitable  necessity  with  their  predetermining  cause  or  causes. 
They  are  not  merely  turned  loose — abandoned  to  their  fate 


810        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

without  masters  or  protectors  to  look  after  them,  but  they  are 
assumed  to  be  Caucasians,  black-white  men,  creatures  like 
ourselves,  with  the  same  capacities,  and  the  same  wants,  and 
though  no  one  assumes  to  do  so  individually,  society  forces 
them  to  live  up  to  the  theory  in  question,  and,  as  this  is  impos- 
sible, as  no  human  force  or  forces  can  set  aside  the  ordinances 
of  the  Eternal,  it  destroys  them.  If,  for  example,  laws  were 
passed  to  change  the  color,  the  hair",  the  form  of  the  limbs,  or 
say  physical  quality  of  the  negro,  and  the  whole  power  of  the 
State  was  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  compel  him  to  be  like 
the  white  man  in  these  resj)ects,  it  is  obvious  that  nothing 
could  be  accomplished  save  the  destruction  of  the  unhappy 
creature.  The  capacities,  the  wants,  the  moral  and  intellectual 
nature  of  the  negro,  differ  from  our  own  to  the  precise  extent 
that  his  physical  nature  or  bodily  structure  differs  from  ours, 
and,  therefore,  Northern  society,  or  rather  that  monstrous  and 
malignant  philanthropy  which  in  its  ignorance  and  blind  impiety 
deems  itself  kind  and  beneficent,  necessarily  destroys  the  object 
of  its  solicitude  when  it  strives  to  give  him  the  rights  of  the 
white  man,  or  to  force  him  to  change  his  moral  and  intellec- 
tual nature  into  that  of  the  white  man. 

If  all  the  children  of  the  age  of  ten,  in  a  given  community, 
were  turned  from  their  homes  into  the  street  and  left  without 
their  natural  protectors  to  care  and  provide  for  their  wants, 
they  would  perish  in  time,  of  course,  if  we  could  suppose  them 
to  remain  at  this  age  or  condition.  But  if,  in  addition  to  this 
abandonment  of  these  helpless  ones,  a  theory  were  set  up  that 
they  had  all  the  capabilities  of  the  adult,  and  should,  therefore, 
enjoy  the  rights  and  perform  the  duties  of  men  and  women, 
they  would,  of  necessity,  perish  still  more  rapidly.  If  a  dog, 
or  horse,  or  other  domestic  animal  were  turned  loose  or  lost 
its  owner,  it  would  sooner  or  later  perish,  but  if  some  deluded 
u  Dhilanthropist"  should  set  up  the  assumption  that  his  bull- 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO.        811 

nog,  for  instance,  was  entitled  to  the  rights  and  should  enjoy 
the  life  of  the  hound,  and  therefore  attempt  to  force  it  to  ex- 
hibit the  same  qualities,  the  scent,  sight,  or  swiftness  that  God 
has  given  the  latter,  he  would,  of  course,  destroy  the  poor 
thing  with  far  greater  rapidity  than  if  he  had  simply  turned  it 
loose  to  shift  for  itself.  Similar  results  do  attend  and  mu^t 
attend  that  malignant  philanthropy  and  blind  impiety  which 
would  impose  the  rights  or  force  the  duties  of  the  white  man 
on  the  differently  organized  and  differently  endowed  negro. 
In  Virginia  and  Maryland  he  is  simply  turned  loose  without 
any  guide  or  protector  or  white  man's  rights  whatever,  not 
even  the  right  of  free  locomotion  common  to  British  subjects, 
and,  therefore,  lives  longer,  for  there  is  no  especial  violence 
attempted — no  direct  effort  made  to  force  him  to  live  out  the 
life  or  to  manifest  the  nature  of  widely  different  beings.  But 
in  Canada  and  Massachusetts,  where  white  manhood  is  held 
so  cheaply  that  the  negro  is  supposed  to  be  entitled  to  the 
same  rights,  and  direct  efforts  are  made  to  compel  him  to  ful- 
fill the  same  duties,  where  the  little  Prince  of  Wales  in  his 
recent  visit  declared  that  he  would  not  recognize  those  dis- 
tinctions of  race  that  originate  in  the  mind  of  the  Eternal 
and  are  fashioned  by  the  hand  of  Omnipotence,  which  no 
amount  or  extent  of  human  force,  folly,  impiety,  or  crime  can 
obliterate  even  to  the  millionth  part  of  a  primordial  atom,  and 
which  millions  of  years  after  those  paltry  distinctions  of  human 
invention  which  transform  this  common-place  lad  into  an 
imaginary  superiority  over  his  fellows  shall  have  disappeared, 
then  he  rapidly  and  miserably  perishes. 

The  tendency  to  extinction,  therefore,  is  always  accelerated 
or  diminished  in  exact  proportion  as  "  impartial  freedom"  is 
thrust  upon  him — as  he  is  permitted  "  to  enjoy  equal  rights" 
with  the  white  man,  or  as  ignorance  and  folly,  in  their  blind 
and  cruel  kindness  and  exterminating  goodness,  strive  to  force 


?12        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO* 

him  to  manifest  the  nature  and  live  the  life  of  a  different  being. 
This  assertion,  doubtless,  startles  the  reader,  as  it  once  cer- 
tainly would  have  startled  the  writer  himself.  "We  are  all  so 
accustomed  to  mental  habits  directly  in  conflict  with  this  asser- 
tion, that  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  lift  our  minds  out  of  them 
and  to  take  true  cognizance  of  the  facts,  and  inductive  facts, 
that  daily  confront  us. 

The  negro  is  a  different  being  from  the  white  man,  and 
therefore,  of  necessity,  was  designed  by  the  Almighty  Creator 
to  live  a  different  life,  and  to  disregard  this — to  shut  our  eyes 
and  blindly  beat  our  brains  against  the  deci'ee — the  eternal 
purpose  of  God  himself,  and  force  this  negro  to  five  our  life^ 
necessarily  destroys  him,  for  surely  human  forces  can  not  dom- 
inate or  set  aside  those  of  Omnipotence.  Nor  is  the  negro  the 
sole  sufferer  from  this  blind  impiety,  this  audacious  attempt  to 
disregard  the  distinctions  and  to  depart  from  the  purposes  of 
the  Almighty  Creator.  The  large  "  free"  negro  populations  of 
Maryland  and  Virginia  are  the  great  drawbacks  on  their  pros- 
perity, and  if  the  hundred  thousand  or  so  of  these  people 
were  supplanted  by  the  same  number  of  white  laborers,  or, 
indeed,  the  same  number  of  "  slave"  negroes,  a  wide  and  benef- 
icent change  would  rapidly  follow.  Furthermore,  they  are 
vicious  as  well  as  idle  and  non-productive,  and  every  one  of 
them  a  disturbing  force — a  dangerous  element — which,  in  con- 
junction with  those  hideous  wretches  maddened  with  a  mon- 
strous theory  like  those  miscreants  at  Haider's  Ferry,  are 
always  liable  to  be  made  instruments  of  fearful  mischief.  The 
consequences  of  the  fifty  thousand  "  free"  negroes  in  juxtaposi- 
tion with  the  three  millions  of  white  people  in  New  York  are 
barely  perceptible,  but  as  scarcely  one  in  fifty  of  these  people  are 
engaged  in  productive  labor,  they  are  a  considerable  burden 
upon  the  laboring  and  producing  ctizens.  True,  they  do  not 
see  it  or  feel  it — and  multitudes  of  honest  and  laborious  citi- 


THE  FUTUEE  OF  THE  NEGEO.        313 

zens  in  the  rural  districts  are  profoundly  interested  in  the 
"  cause  of  freedom,"  while  thus  contributing  a  certain  portion 
of  each  day's  labor  for  the  support  of  some  fifty  thousand  non- 
productive negroes.  Again,  in  the  cities  and  larger  towns, 
the  vices  and  immoralities  of  the  whites  have  an  extended  as- 
sociation with  tins  free  negro  element. 

The  negro  in  his  normal  condition  has  attractive  qualities. 
He  is  not  degraded,  for  none  of  God's  creatures  are  naturally 
degraded,  and  his  fidelity  and  affection  for  his  master  and  his 
master's  family,  sometimes  reach  a  dignity  that  would  reflect 
honor  on  the  white  man.  Nor  is  there  any  prejudice  or 
hatred  between  the  races  when  they  are  in  true  relation  to 
each  other.  One  may  travel  for  months,  perhaps  years,  in  the 
South,  and  never  witness  a  collision  or  the  slightest  disturb- 
ance between  them ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  will  often  see 
a  kindly  feeling  displayed  even  when  the  negro  is  not  owned 
by  those  who  exhibit  it.  The  negro  is  in  a  social  position  and 
relation  that  accords  with  his  nature,  his  wants,  the  purposes 
that  God  has  adapted  him  to,  in  short,  lives  out  his  own  life, 
and  therefore,  all  that  is  good,  that  is  healthy  in  his  moral 
nature  as  in  his  physical  nature,  is  didy  manifested.  But  at 
the  North,  wThere  he  is  thrust  from  his  natural  sphere  and 
forced  to  five  out  the  life  of  a  different  being,  he  exhibits  the 
same  moral  defects  that  he  does  in  his  physical  nature.  He 
is  a  social  monstrosity — and  though  his  subordinate  nature 
renders  him  less  likely  to  commit  great  crimes  than  the  supe- 
rior white  man,  the  tendencies  to  petty  immoralities  are  almost 
universal.  Some,  indeed,  bred  up  in  well-regulated  families, 
and  others  who  are  nearly  white,  escape  the  general  demorali- 
zation of  this  people,  but  the  instances  are  probably  few — the 
moral  defects  march  hand  in  hand  with  the  physical,  and,  as 
they  tend  continually  to  disease  and  death,  so,  too,  do  they 
tend  to  universal  immorality.     And  as  it  would  be  strange, 

14 


314        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

indeed,  ii  Providence  visited  the  sins  of  the  dominant  race  on 
these  poor  creatures  alone,  they  are  extensively  associated,  ag 
has  been  observed,  with  the  vices  of  the  whites.  With  feebk 
perceptions  of  moral  obligations,  with  strong  tendencies  to 
animal  indulgences  of  every  kind,  and  an  utter  repugnance  to 
productive  labor,  they  congregate  in  the  cities ;  and  the  social 
exclusion  to  which  they  are  exposed,  as  well  as  the  absence  of 
moral  sentiment  among  them,  renders  them,  to  a  wide  extent, 
the  instruments  of  the  vices  and  corruptions  of  the  whites. 

Thus,  it  is  not  alone  the  negro's  non-productiveness — the  bur- 
den, the  absolute  tax  imposed  on  the  laboring  classes — but  the 
demoralization  of  this  abnormal  element,  of  this  social  monstros- 
ity, that  is  inflicted  on  society  as  the  legitimate  and  unavoidable 
punishment  for  having  placed  the  negro  in  an  abnormal  cond'^- 
tion.  God  created  him  a  negro — a  different  and  inferior  being, 
and,  therefore,  designed  him  for  a  different  and  inferior  social 
position.  Society,  or  the  State,  has  ignored  the  work  of  the 
Almighty,  and  declared  that  he  should  occupy  the  same  posi- 
tion and  live  out  the  life  of  the  white  man ;  and  the  result  is,  the 
laboring  and  producing  classes  are  burdened  with  his  support, 
and  society,  to  a  certain  extent,  poisoned  by  his  presence.  To 
the  negro  it  is  death — necessarily  death,  as  it  always  must  be  to 
all  creatures,  human  or  animal,forbidden  to  live  the  life  God  has 
blessed  them  with,  or  to  live  in  accord  with  the  conditions  He 
has  imposed  on  them.  The  ultimate  doom  of  the  poor  crea- 
tures, therefore,  is  only  a  question  of  time.  The  great  "  anti- 
slavery"  imposture  of  our  times,  which  has  rested  on  popular 
ignorance  of  a  few  fundamental  truths  in  ethnology  and  politi- 
cal economy,  has  at  last  culminated,  and  few,  if  any  more  of 
these  people  will  ever  be  turned  loose,  or  manumitted  as  it  has 
been  called.  Whether  they  will  be  restored  to  society  and  to 
usefulness  at  the  North  may  be  doubted,  but  necessity  as  well 
as  humanity  will  doubtless  prompt  such  a  policy  af  the  South' 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGEO.        315 

but,  in  any  event,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that,  as  a  class,  they 
will  become  extinct,  and  a  hundred  years  hence  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  no  such  social  monstrosity  as  a  "  free  negro" 
will  be  found  in  America. 

But  another  and  far  more  embarrassing  question  is  pre- 
sented by  free  negroism  outside  of  the  American  Union,  and 
that  now  confronts  us  in  Cuba,  Jamaica,  Hayti,  Mexico,  and 
on  the  whole  line  of  our  Southern  border.  This  is  the  danger, 
the  sole  danger  of  the  so-called  slavery  question,  and  it  involves 
possibilities  that  are  fearful  to  think  of,  though  scarcely  dan- 
gerous at  all  if  our  own  people  were  truly  enlightened  on  the 
general  subject. 

In  a  previous  chapter  it  has  been  shown  how  climatic  and 
industrial  laws  govern  our  mixed  populations,  and,  without  the 
slightest  interference  of  government,  the  negro  element  goes 
just  where  its  own  welfare  as  well  as  that  of  the  white  citizen- 
ship and  the  general  interests  of  civilization  demand  its  pres- 
ence. This  law  of  industrial  adaptation  has  carried  it  from, 
northern  ports  into  the  Central  States,  from  the  latter  to  the 
Border  States,  and  is  now,  with  even  increased  activity,  carry- 
ing it  from  Virginia,  etc.,  into  the  Gulf  States,  and  thus  per- 
mitted to  go  on,  with  all  obstacles  removed  from  the  path  of 
its  progress,  a  time  will  come  when  the  negro  population  of 
the  New  "World  will  be  within  the  centre  of  existence  where  it 
was  created,  and  where  the  Almighty  Creator  has  provided  for 
its  well-being.  A  sectional  party  in  the  North,  taking  advantage 
of  popular  ignorance,  and  actually  enacting  a  law  prohibiting  it 
to  exist  anywhere  where  white  labor  is  best  adapted,  could  not 
by  that  sole  act  do  any  practical  injury  to  the  social  order  of 
the  South.  Such  an  act  would  indeed  be  a  violation  of  the  spirit 
of  the  federal  compact,  and,  as  an  adjunct  of  the  hostile  policy 
of  the  foreign  enemies  of  republican  institutions,  its  moral  bear- 
ings  would  be  full  of  mischief;  but,  disconnected  or  disunited 


316        THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  NEGRO- 

with  the  British  free  negro  policy,  it  would  be  harmless,  for, 
as  Mr.  Webster  once  declared,  it  would  only  be  a  "  reenact- 
ment  of  the  will  of  God."  But,  as  already  observed,  the  dan- 
ger of  this  whole  question  lies  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the 
American  Union,  and  if  it  be  true  that  we  have  a  considerable 
number  in  our  midst  disaffected  to  democratic  institutions — 
then  every  man  opposed  to  the  existing  condition,  or  so-called 
slavery,  is,  however  ignorant  of  it,  to  a  certain  extent  an  in- 
strument of  the  enemies  of  these  institutions ;  and  the  policy  of 
any  such  party,  as  well  as  the  action  of  any  among  us,  whether 
in  concert  with,  or  independently  of  any  such  pai'ty,  for  the 
same  common  object  or  end,  becomes  treason,  and  treason  the 
most  wicked  and  revolting  that  the  mind  can  conceive  of,  for 
it  involves  the  natural  supremacy  of  the  white  man  over  the 
negro,  as  well  as  the  permanence,  peace,  and  prosperity  of 
our  republican  system.  The  Spanish,  still  less  the  Portuguese 
conquerors  of  America,  have  never  exhibited  that  healthy  nat- 
ural instinct  which  preserves  the  integrity  of  races,  so  univer- 
sally as  the  Anglo-Americans  have  done.  They  have  inter- 
mixed and  amalgamated  with  the  Indians  or  Aboriginals  with 
little  hesitation ;  and  though  they  have  always  manifested 
a  certain  repugnance  to  an  equality  with  the  still  more  subor- 
dinate negro,  they  have  largely  intermixed,  and  therefore,  ex- 
tensively deteriorated  and  ruined  themselves. 

In  Brazil  there  are  nearly  four  millions  of  negroes  that  are 
called  slaves,  but  held  more  by  the  bonds  of  pecuniary  interest 
than  they  are  by  nature,  as  with  us.  There  is  a  large  mulatto 
and  mongrel  population,  often  highly  educated,  possessing  vast 
wealth,  with,  of  course,  all  the  advantages  that  these  things 
give  when  society  does  not  rest  on  natural  distinctions.  A 
mulatto  or  mongrel  in  Virginia  or  Mississippi  may  be  left  to 
take  care  of  himself,  or  be  a  so-called  freeman,  but  he  can 
never  be  a  citizen — can  never  in  any  thing  whatever  be  legally 
endowed  with  the  social  attributes,  any  more  than  he  can  witb 


THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  NEGRO.        817 

the  natural  attributes,  of  the  white  man.  But  in  Brazil,  and, 
indeed,  in  Cuba,  the  mulatto,  mongrel,  or  negro  may  by  law 
become  a  citizen,  may  own  slaves,  may,  in  short,  be  artificially 
invested  with  all  the  "rights"  by  the  government  that  nature — 
that  God  himself  has  withheld  or  forbidden.  The  white  man 
in  Cuba  is  a  slave  to  a  foreign  dominion,  and  this  same  foreign 
power,  while  it  withholds  from  him  his  natural  rights,  forces  the 
negro  by  the  same  arbitrary  power  into  legal  equality  with 
him.  The  arbitrary  force  is  less  in  Brazil,  but  the  low  grade 
of  manhood  in  the  white  element,  its  extensive  affiliation  and 
consequent  deterioration  with  the  subject  race,  has  rendered 
them  incapable  of  either  comprehending  liberty  or  of  enjoying 
free  institutions.  The  negro  that  was  a  slave  once  becomes  a 
citizen,  with  all  the  legal  rights  of  the  white  man,  and,  if  he 
inherits  wealth,  educates  his  children,  etc.,  then  these  artifi- 
cial and  accidental  things,  instead  of  the  distinctions  of  nature, 
become  the  line  of  demarcation  in  society.  If  a  planter  has  a 
family  of  children  by  his  negro  slaves,  and  educates  them  and 
leaves  them  his  wealth,  then  they  become  influential  citizens, 
makers  of  the  government,  etc.,  and  leaders  of  fashion,  perhaps, 
in  Rio  Janeiro  and  other  cities.  The  white  man  is  so  degraded, 
the  instinct  of  race  so  perverted,  the  sense  of  superiority  so 
obtuse — in  short,  the  nature  of  the  Caucasian  so  completely 
corrupted  by  extensive  affiliations  with  the  subject  race,  that 
natural  distinctions  are  no  longer  a  line  of  demarcation,  and 
wealth,  accident,  etc.,  as  in  Europe,  and  as  the  Federalists  once 
desired,  are  the  basis  of  the  political  and  social  order.  It  is 
somewhat  different  in  Cuba,  for  here  the  American  instinct  of 
race  and  the  high  appreciation  of  manhood  common  to  all 
societies  based  on  the  order  of  nature  have  a  certain  influence. 
But  even  in  Cuba,  in  our  own  neighborhood,  within  a  few 
hours'  sail  of  our  coast,  society  rests  upon  an  artificial  basis,  and 


818        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NE6EO. 

what  is  called  slavery  rather  involves  pecuniary  considerations 
than  a  question  of  races. 

The  social  condition,  therefore,  or  so-called  slavery  may  be 
overthrown  any  day  in  Brazil  or  Cuba,  for,  resting  on  a  basis 
of  property  instead  of  the  distinctions  of  nature  common  with 
us,  there  is  no  permanent  security  for  the  social  safety,  and  in 
view  of  the  policy  of  England  on  this  subject  and  its  influence 
in  Brazil,  we  should  not  be  surprised  at  any  moment  to  hear 
that  a  revolution  had  broken  out,  and  that  slavery  was  over- 
thrown in  every  portion  of  the  Brazilian  empire.  This  result 
which  may  happen  at  any  moment,  and  which  circumstances 
alone  may  protract  for  an  indefinite  period,  would  seem  to  be 
ultimately  inevitable — for  the  white  element  is  every  day  be- 
coming more  deteriorated  and  feeble ;  and,  without  the  mental 
and  moral  power,  without  the  healthy  instinct  of  the  race  to 
buoy  it  up  amid  such  corrupt  and  corrupting  tendencies,  with- 
out that  high  sense  of  manhood  which  makes  the  American 
"  slaveholder"  the  perfect  type  and  complete  embodiment  of 
the  strength  and  power  of  the  great  master  race  of  man- 
kind, without,  in  short,  the  natural  superiority  of  the  white 
man  to  restrain  this  negro  and  mongrel  population,  it  is  cer- 
tain sooner  or  later  to  escape  from  all  legal  restraint,  and  any 
hour  the  whole  social  fabric  may  collapse  into  utter  and  hope- 
less ruin.  It  will  be  well  for  Americans  who  desire  to  pre- 
serve American  institutions  and  American  civilization  to  heed 
this  and  ponder  well  on  the  uncertain  and  rotten  founda- 
tions of  social  order  in  Brazil  and  Cuba,  and  which,  already 
fatally  undermined,  may  at  any  moment,  as  has  been  said,  col- 
lapse into  a  huge  mass  of  free  negroism,  and  thus  become  a 
portion  of  that  diseased,  monstrous,  and  nameless  condition 
which  ignorance,  and  folly,  and  imposture,  and  hatred  to  Amer- 
ican democracy  have  combined  to  pervert  language  as  well  aa 
stultify  reason  and  call  freedom. 


THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  NEGRO.        819 

Elsewhere  it  has  been  shown  that  the  negro  isolated  in  Af- 
rica is  in  a  natural  condition,  for  he  multiplies  himself,  but  that 
he  is  in  his  normal,  healthy,  educated  or  civilized  condition  at 
the  South,  for  he  then  multiplies  with  vastly  greater  rapidity 
than  in  a  state  of  isolation,  and  consequently,  must  be  more  in 
harmony  with  those  fixed  and  eternal  decrees  that  God  has 
ordained  for  the  government  of  all  His  creatures.  It  has  also 
been  shown  that  the  negro  abandoned  and  left  to  himself  in 
Virginia,  etc.,  dies  out,  but,  of  course,  less  rapidly  than  at 
the  North  where  the  notion  prevails  that  ne  is  the  same  being 
as  themselves,  and  therefore,  in  their  efforts  to  make  him 
manifest  the  same  qualities,  or,  in  other  words,  to  force  on 
him  the  same  "  rights,"  he  rapidly  tends  to  extinction.  But 
there  is  still  another  phase  of  free  negroism  vastly  more  ex- 
tended and  more  dangerous  to  republican  institutions  and  the 
future  civilization  of  America. 

The  negro  is  a  creature  of  the  tropics,  and  his  labor  is 
essential  to  the  cultivation  of  tropical  and  tropicoid  products, 
which,  in  turn,  are  essential  to  the  happiness  and  well-being  of 
all  mankind.  But,  as  has  been  shown,  his  mental  organism  ren- 
ders him  incapable — as  absolutely  and  inevitably  as  the  physi- 
cal organism  of  the  white  man  renders  him  incapable  of  trop- 
ical production.  In  the  brief  space  allowed  in  this  work  to 
the  consideration  of  this  vital  and  most  momentous  truth,  the 
author  could  only  present  a  few  leading  facts  in  its  support, 
but  these  facts  are  so  overwhelming  that  no  rational  or  honest 
mind  in  Christendom  will  venture  to  dispute  the  truth  in  ques- 
tion. Furthermore  it  may  be  stated  without  chance  or  possi- 
bility of  historical  contradiction,  that  in  the  entire  experience 
of  mankind  no  single  instance  has  ever  been  known  when  the 
isolated  negro  or  the  labor  of  the  white  man  has  cultivated 
the  soil  or  grown  the  products  of  the  tropics.  The  mind  of 
the  white  man  and  the  body  of  the  negro — the  intellect  of  the 


820        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

most  elevated  and  the  industrial  capacities  of  the  most  subor- 
dinate  of  all  the  known  human  races,  therefore,  constitute  the 
elements  and  motive  forces  of  tropical  civilization.  E very- 
mind  capable  of  reasoning  at  all  will  know  that  civilization  is 
impossible  without  production,  and  production  in  the  great 
tropical  centre  of  our  continent  being  forever  absolutely  and 
necessarily  impossible  without  negro  labor  guided,  controlled, 
and  managed  by  the  higher  intelligence  of  the  white  man — it 
is  therefore  absolutely  certain  that  the  social  relation  which 
English  writers  have  taught  the  world  to  regard  as  a  condi- 
tion of  slavery,  is  simply  that  social  adaptation  of  the  industrial 
forces  of  the  subordinate  race,  essential,  not  alone  to  their 
own  welfare  but  to  the  welfare  of  all  mankind,  and  without 
which  there  can  no  more  exist  what  we  call  civilization  in  a 
large  portion  of  America  than  there  can  be  life  without  food 
or  light  without  the  sun.  This  is  obvious,  and  indeed  un- 
avoidable to  those  who  are  in  actual  juxtaposition  with  negroes. 
But  in  Europe  where  there  are  white  men  only,  and  where 
negroes,  Indians,  Malays,  etc.,  are  in  the  popular  imagin- 
ation beings  like  themselves  except  in  the  complexion,  and 
only  need  to  be  civilized,  as  they  suppose,  to  be  like  others,  it 
was  an  easy  matter  to  excite  a  public  feeling  hostile  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  people  of  the  tropics.  The  theory,  or  rather 
dogma  of  a  single  race,  that  all  mankind  was  a  unit,  and  ne- 
groes, Indians,  etc.,  had  a  common  origin  and  common  nature, 
and  therefore  common  rights,  had  been  set  up  by  English  wri- 
ters during  the  conflict  with  the  American  colonies ;  and  Dr. 
Johnson,  with  his  usual  coarseness  of  expression,  had  declared 
that  "  the  Virginia  slaveholders  were  the  loudest  yelpers  for 
liberty"  —  thus,  in  utter  unconsciousness,  paying  them  a  com- 
pliment when  he  believed  he  was  inflicting  a  sarcasm  of  pecu- 
liar virulence. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  reacted 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO.        S21 

in  Europe,  and  the  French  Revolution,  which  followed  so 
closely  on  the  American,  threatened  to  overthrow  the  whole 
social  fabric  in  the  Old  World  and  to  reconstruct  its  govern- 
ments on  the  basis  of  the  great  American  idea  promulgated 
by  Jefferson.  To  counteract  these  tendencies,  the  English 
statesmen  of  the  day  sought  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
people  from  their  own  wrongs  to  the  fancied  wrongs  of  the 
negro — and  Wilberforce,  Dr.  Johnson,  and  other  tory  leaders 
and  writers,  originated  that  world-wide  delusion  and  imposture 
which,  in  the  name  of  freedom,  has  probably  done  more  dam- 
age to  freedom  than  all  other  influences  combined,  within  the 
last  seventy  years.  The  assumption  of  a  single  race — that  the 
negro  was  a  black-white  man,  and  therefore  entitled  to  all  the 
rights  of  white  men,  naturally  attracted  the  attention  and 
aroused  the  sympathies  of  the  English  masses,  and  when  the 
supposed  wrongs  of  the  negro  in  America  were  contrasted  with 
their  own,  the  latter,  doubtless,  seemed  utterly  insignificant  in 
comparison. 

The  English  government,  therefore,  entered  on  an  "anti- 
slavery"  policy,  which,  beginning  with  the  abrogation  of  the 
"  slave  trade"  has  continued  ever  since,  and  though  it  has  im- 
poverished, and,  in  fact,  destroyed  some  of  the  finest  provinces 
of  the  British  empire,  it  is  as  avowed,  defined,  and  ener- 
getic at  this  moment,  perhaps  even  more  so  than  at  any  other 
period  since  it  was  commenced.  Mr.  Calhoun  and  others  have 
supposed  that  the  so-called  emancipation  of  negroes  in  the 
British  West  India  Islands  originated  in  a  spirit  of  commercial 
rivalry,  and  in  order  to  monopolize  tropical  production  in  their 
East  Indian  possessions  that  they  were  willing  to  sacrifice 
utterly  their  West  Indian  colonies.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  British  statesmen  universally  believed  that  the  example 
they  were  about  to  give  us  in  this  respect  would  be  followed 
by  universal  "  emancipation"  in  the  United  States,  as,  indeed, 

14* 


322        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

it  has  been  followed  by  all  the  European  governments  owning 
American  possessions.  But  while  this  was  expected  by  every 
body  in  England,  and  thus  far  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
prime  motive  of  their  action,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  assume 
that  British  statesmen  were  prompted  by  a  spirit  of  commer- 
cial rivalry  or  believed  for  a  moment  that  they  were  concoct- 
ing a  grand  scheme  for  securing  a  monopoly  of  tropical  pro- 
ducts. The  policy  begun  by  Pitt  forty  years  previous,  naturally 
and  necessarily  culminated  in  the  "emancipation"  of  1832, 
though  the  desire  to  neutralize  the  popular  excitement  then 
prevailing  in  respect  to  parliamentary  reform,  doubtless 
hastened  the  action  of  the  government.  English  statesmen 
may  be  unable,  and  probably  are  unable  to  explain  the  motives 
for  their  "  anti-slavery"  policy,  but  they  never  mistake  or  fail 
to  recognize  its  vital  importance  to  the  preservation  of  their 
system.  Democracy  and  aristocracy  are  necessarily  antagon 
istic  in  all  their  tendencies,  and  the  progress,  strength,  and 
extension  of  the  former  necessarily  involve  the  downfall  and 
destruction  of  the  latter.  And,  as  it  is  the  South — the  "  slave- 
holders," the  States,  and  the  people  whose  social  life  rests 
upon  natural  distinctions  that  have  always  struck  the  dead- 
liest blows  at  the  British  system,  and,  as  declared  by  the  old 
tory,  Dr.  Johnson,  eighty  years  ago,  have  been  the  warmest 
supporters  of  liberty,  British  statesmen,  in  their  turn,  desired 
to  break  down  a  condition  thus  dangerous  and  thus  in  conflict 
with  their  own. 

Indeed,  they  can  not  avoid  making  war  upon  the  social 
order  of  the  South.  It  is  a  necessity  that  exists  in  the  nature 
of  things,and  springs  spontaneously  from  the  circumstances  that 
constitute  the  opposing  conditions,  and  therefore,  from  1776 
to  1860  this  warfare,  openly  or  secretly,  on  the  battle-field,  or 
the  still  more  dangerous  arena  of  public  opinion,  has  been  unin- 
terrupted.    Their  system  is  based  on  artificial  distinctions — on 


THE     FUTURE     OF     TIIE     NEGRO.  323 

things  of  human  invention ;  ours  on  natural  distinctions — those 
fixed  forever  by  the  hand  of  the  Almighty ;  and  so  long  as 
England  is  an  American  power  her  policy  must  be  in  conflict 
with  our  own.  If  it  could  ever  be  successful — if  the  twelve 
millions  of  negroes  on  this  continent  could  ever  be  forced  from 
their  normal  condition  of  subordination  into  a  legal  equality 
with  the  whites — then  it  is  obvious  democratic  institutions 
would  be  rendered  impracticable.  A  simple  statement  of  the 
facts  involved  would  seem  to  be  sufficient  to  convince  every 
American  mind  not  corrupted  by  British  opinions,  that  the 
British  "  anti-slavery"  policy  is  part  and  parcel  of  the  British 
system,  and  therefore  must  go  on  as  it  has  gone  on  until  it 
either  overthrows  our  republican  institutions,  or  England,  and 
indeed  all  other  European  governments  and  European  influ- 
ences are  driven  from  the  New  "World.  The  causes  of 
West  Indian  "  emancipation,"  therefore,  lie  deeper  and  are  far 
wider  in  their  scope,  and  immeasurably  more  deadly  in  their 
consequences  than  any  temporary  schemes  of  commercial 
rivalry,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  to  monopolize  tropical 
products. 

They  strike  at  the  national  life — at  the  heart  of  republican- 
ism, at  the  fundamental  principle  that  underlies  our  system,  at 
the  everlasting  truth  that  all  who  belong  to  the  race  are  cre- 
ated free  and  equal ;  and  should  it  ever  be  successful,  should 
our  people  ever  become  so  corrupted  in  opinion,  and  so  de- 
bauched in  their  instincts  as  to  assent  to  the  British  "  anti 
slavery"  policy  and  "  abolish  slavery" — distort  and  transform 
themselves  into  equality  with  negroes,  then  it  could  not  be 
long  before  the  forms  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  republicanism 
would  disappear  from  the  New  World,  and  whatever  might 
happen  in  the  course  of  centuries,  all  that  Washington  and 
Jefferson  and  the  glorious  spirits  of  1776  labored  for  would  be 
lost  to  mankind. 


32i        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

While  British  and  monarchical  writers,  therefore,  have 
labored  to  corrupt  the  nation  at  the  heart — to  delude  the 
reason  and  debauch  the  instincts  of  our  people — to  teach  them 
that  the  negro  was  a  man  like  themselves,  and  that  the  instincts 
which  God  gave  them  for  their  guidance  in  these  respects 
were  unworthy  prejudices — that  to  retain  this  inferior  and  dif- 
ferent being  in  a  subordinate  social  position  corresponding 
with  his  wants  and  our  own  welfare  was  wrong — an  evil,  a  sin — 
in  short,  "  enslaving  him" — while  European  writers  and  their 
dupes  among  us  were  thus  at  work  corrupting  the  intellect  of 
a  great  people,  the  British  government  have  steadily  labored 
to  reduce  their  teachings  to  practice  and  to  "  abolish  slavery" 
in  all  their  American  possessions.  It  has  been  estimated  that 
something  like  five  hundred  millions  of  money  have  been  ex- 
pended within  the  last  seventy  years  to  carry  out  the  British 
"  anti-slavery"  policy,  to  abolish  the  natural  supremacy  of  the 
white  man  over  the  negro,  to  obliterate  the  distinctions  fixed 
by  the  Almighty  Creator,  and  equalize  those  He  has  created 
unequal.  This  vast  expenditure  is  wrung,  of  course,  from  the 
toil,  and  sweat,  and  misery  of  the  English  laboring  classes,  and 
to  pay  the  annual  interest  on  it  every  laborer  in  England  is 
compelled  to  give  a  certain  portion  of  every  day's  toil,  which 
is  thus  taken  from  the  mouths  of  his  children  to  carry  on  a 
policy  at  war  with  liberty  in  America,  but  which  through  the 
monstrous  delusions  of  the  day  is  represented  to  be  the  noblest 
philanthropy !  An  aristocracy,  a  class,  a  mere  fraction  of  the 
people,  have  laid  this  enormous  burden  on  their  brethren,  their 
own  race — those  whom  God  created  their  equals — in  order  to 
obliterate  the  distinctions  by  which  the  Almighty  has  separa- 
ted white  men  and  negroes;  or,  in  other  words,  to  preserve 
their  distinctions — those  which  they  have  invented,  which  sep- 
arate themselves  from  their  brethren,  the  British  aristocracy 
have  mortgaged  the  bodies  and  souls  of  unborn  generations 


THB  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO.        825 

of  their  kind  in  an  impious  and  fruitless  effort  to  destroy  the 
distinctions  that  separate  races,  and  equalize  white  men  and 
negroes  in  America.  The  interest  for  a  single  year  on  this 
enormous  sum,  this  mighty  burden  laid  on  the  working  classes 
of  England,  expended  on  popular  education,  would  doubtless 
react  in  a  wide-spread  revolution  and  the  utter  annihilation  of 
those  who,  under  the  pretence  of  philanthropy,  or  of  liberating 
negroes  in  America,  have  imposed  these  stupendous  burdens 
on  the  people. 

A  few  years  since,  an  awful  dispensation  of  Providence  in  a 
neighboring  island  swept  away  in  a  brief  space  of  time  some- 
thing like  three  millions  of  people — but,  if  the  annual  interest 
paid  on  the  debt  contracted  under  pretence  of  benefiting 
negroes  in  America  had  been  applied  to  the  relief  of  the  Irish, 
probably  all  or  nearly  all  of  these  unfortunate  white  people 
might  have  been  saved.  Indeed,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that,  if  the  money  taken  from  Irish  laborers  within  the  last 
seventy  years  and  expended  for  the  assumed  benefit  of  the 
negro  had  been  applied  to  their  relief  during  the  famine  in  Ire- 
land, few  if  any  would  have  perished,  and  that  awful  calamity 
never  would  have  disfigured  the  annals  of  mankind. 

It  is  the  practice  of  some  ignorant  and  superficial  people 
among  us  to  glorify  this  stupendous  misery  inflicted  on  the 
ignorant  and  helpless  of  their  own  race  under  the  pretence  of 
benefiting  the  negro.  If  it  had  done  so— if,  instead  of  an 
almost  equal  mischief  to  the  negro,  it  had  done  him  a  bound- 
less good — the  crime  against  their  own  helpless  and  miserable 
people — the  poor,  ignorant,  over-worked,  and  undei-fed  labor- 
ing millions  of  their  own  race — would  still  scarcely  find  its 
parallel  in  the  history  of  human  wrongs.  But  it  inflicted  a 
still  greater  crime  on  the  white  people  of  the  islands — for  it 
has  doomed  them  to  extinction— not  absorption  by  the  negro 
blood,  as  already  explained,  but  entire  extinction — that  result 


326        THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  NEGRO. 

being  sinmly  a  question  of  time.  Such,  briefly  considered, 
are  the  causes  and  the  results,  so  far  as  the  dominant  race  are 
concerned,  of  the  British  "anti-slavery"  policy,  which,  be- 
ginning in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  has  been  steadily 
and  vigorously  persisted  in,  and  is,  probably,  in  the  face  of 
all  its  failures  in  respect  to  its  avowed  objects,  more  energetic 
and  active  at  this  moment  than  ever  before.  All  the  islands 
are  now,  whether  owned  by  England  or  other  European  pow- 
ers, substantially  turned  over  to  the  negro.  The  governments 
are  smvply  means  for  working  out  this  ultimate  result.  Eng- 
land, for  example,  sends  out  to  Jamaica  a  governor,  secretary, 
and  a  few  other  officials,  perhaps  to  carry  on  the  government  of 
that  island.  The  governor  probably  selects  his  council  from  the 
white  element,  for  the  reason  that  tbe  intelligence  of  the  negro 
is  incompetent  to  the  functions  attached,  and  in  respect  to  the 
more  important  official  positions  generally,  they  are,  from  the 
same  cause,  filled  by  white  men,  or  by  those  of  predominating 
white  blood.  But  the  policy  of  the  government  is  to  place 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  blacks,  and  therefore  all  the  sub- 
ordinate official  positions  are  filled  by  these  people,  as,  indeed, 
all  the  higher  and  more  important  places  would  be  if  there 
was  sufficient  intelligence  to  perform  the  functions  properly. 

A  foreign  power — an  aristocracy  of  the  Old  World — em- 
ploys a  machinery,  a  contrivance,  or  thing  called  a  govern- 
ment, to  exterminate  the  white  population  in  these  islands, 
and  to  turn  them  over  to  the  rule  of  the  negro.  Under  the 
English  system,  political  or  official  position,  unlike  ours,  carries 
with  it  social  importance,  and  a  negro  who  is  a  member  of  the 
legislature  or  a  magistrate  in  Jamaica  is  elevated,  in  a  social 
sense,  above  the  white  who  holds  no  official  position,  no 
matter  what  his  claims  may  be  in  other  respects.  With  the 
same  legal  and  political  rights,  the  same  schools,  and  with 
largely  predominating  numbers,  and  most  of  the  official  posi- 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO.        327 

tions  in  their  hands,  which,  under  the  British  system  always 
gives  social  importance,  the  whole  operation  of  the  govern- 
ment is  employed  to  elevate  the  negro  in  the  social  scale,  and 
to  depress  the  white  man.  Of  course,  intermarriage  or  affilia- 
tion— that  hideous  admixture  of  the  blood  of  different  races 
which  God  has  eternally  forbidden,  and  so  fearfully  punishes 
with  extinction — is  a  direct  and  necessary  consequence  of  this 
governmental  policy. 

A  short  time  since  the  Queen  of  England  knighted  a  negro, 
and  as  this  factitious  elevation  placed  him  in  a  social  position, 
quite  above  the  untitled  white  man  of  Jamaica,  the  white 
woman  of  fashion  would,  doubtless,  smother  the  instincts  God 
gave  for  her  guidance,  and  desecrate  her  womanhood  by  an 
alliance  with  this  creature  whom  God  made  inferior,  but  whom 
a  woman,  four  thousand  miles  distant,  was  pleased  to  make 
her  equal.  The  government,  therefore — all  the  governments 
of  the  British  Islands,  and,  indeed  of  all  other  European 
powrers,  are  shnply  instruments  that  are  employed  to  elevate 
the  negro  and  to  depress  the  white  man  to  a  common  level, 
to  equalize  races,  to  obliterate  distinctions  fixed  forever  by  the 
hand  of  the  Almighty,  and  make  the  negro  the  equal  of  the 
white  man.  It  is  no  negative  or  laissez  faire  policy — no  neutral 
or  indifferent  desire  to  apply  a  theory  and  leave  it  to  work 
itself  out — no  mere  abstract  declaration  that  all  are  equal,  and 
therefore  should  be  left  free  to  ascend  or  descend  in  the  social 
scale  according  to  their  merits;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the 
government  is  an  active  and  all-potent  machinery,  in  constant 
operation  to  force  the  negro  up,  and  the  white  man  down,  to 
a  common  level.  And  it  is  probable  that  people  in  England 
look  upon  this  policy  as  just  and  proper.  The  negroes  largely 
predominate  in  number — why  should  they  not  have  most  of 
the  offices  ?  They  have  been  wronged  and  oppressed,  and  are 
without  education,  and  therefore  the  higher  places  must  be 


828        THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  NEGRO. 

filled  by  wnite  men;  but  why  should  not  they  enjoy  all  the 
places  they  are  fit  for  ?  Such,  doubtless,  is  the  notion  of  those 
in  Europe,  who,  utterly  ignorant  of  the  negro,  suppose  him  a 
man  like  themselves,  except  in  his  color.  But  human  igno- 
rance and  impiety  can  not  change  His  eternal  decrees  or 
alter  the  works  of  the  Almighty.  A  middle-aged,  respectable 
woman  in  England  may  "  Knight"  a  negro,  and  declare  that 
she  thus  makes  him  superior  to  the  common  throng  of  white 
men,  but  the  black  skin,  and  woolly  hair,  and  flat  nose,  and 
gross  organism,  and  semi-animal  instinct,  fixed  by  the  hand 
of  the  Eternal,  remains  just  the  same,  unaltered  and  unalter- 
able forever.  All  that  is  possible  with  the  middle-aged  woman 
in  question,  and  those  who  surround  her,  is  to  corrupt,  to  de- 
bauch, to  destroy,  to  exterminate,  to  murder  their  own  blood, 
to  doom  the  white  people  of  those  islands  to  a  fate  more 
horrible  than  the  universal  slaughter  that  swept  away  the 
whites  of  San  Domingo.  The  process  of  extinction  now 
rapidly  destroying  the  white  population  of  these  islands  has 
been  already  considered,  but  it  may  be  stated  again  in  this 
place,  for  it  involves  such  tremendous  consequences  that  it 
should  be  shouted  in  the  ears  of  the  world  with  the  voice  of 
an  earthquake.  The  legal  and  political  equality  of  the  negro 
necessarily  carries  after  it  social  equality  wherever  they  pre- 
dominate in  numbers,  and  when  there  are  no  social  distinctions 
of  race  or  blood  recognized,  when  that  instinct  which  God 
has  given  us  to  protect  the  integrity  of  the  organism,  is  de- 
bauched and  trampled  under  foot — when,  in  short,  the  "  pre- 
jiidice  against  color"  is  lost,  then  such  depraved  creatures  do 
not  hesitate  to  form  those  hideous  alliances  that  genei-ate 
mulatto  offspring.  And  when  the  whole  force  of  govern- 
ment is  brought  to  bear  against  the  "prejudice"  that  revolts 
at  social  equality — the  hideous  affiliation,  the  monstrous  ad- 
mixture  of  blood,    the  vile  obscenity  that  they  may  term 


THE     FUTURE     OP    THE     NEGRO.  329 

marriage,  follows  with  equal  certainty.  But  the  result  of  this 
admixture — the  wretched  progeny — the  diseased  and  sterile 
offspring — has  a  determinate  limit,  and  it  is  solely  a  question 
of  time  when  it  becomes  wholly  extinct.  Any  one  reflecting 
a  moment  on  this  subject — that  is,  any  American  whose  in- 
stincts are  healthy  and  true — would  surely  prefer  that  his 
offspring  should  perish  from  the  earth  rather  than  to  mix 
their  blood  with  that  of  the  negro  ;  and  as  the  white  blood 
in  Jamaica,  etc.,  is  rapidly  mixing  with  the  negro,  and  with- 
out foreign  addition  to  the  white  element  it  must  soon  be 
universally  tainted  with  the  base  alloy ;  and  as  all  mongrels 
must  of  necessity  ultimately  perish,  it  is  certain  that  the  fate 
of  the  white  people  of  these  islands  is  vastly  more  deplorable 
than  was  that  of  those  suddenly  swept  from  existence  in  the 
Island  of  Hayti. 

The  policy  of  England  in  this  respect  is  universally  adopted 
in  the  other  islands.  The  first  step  was  a  war  upon  the 
"  slave  trade" — then  "  emancipation,"  then  the  active  employ- 
ment of  the  government  to  enforce  the  theory  of  a  single  race 
by  forcing  the  negro  up  and  the  white  man  down  to  an  abhor- 
rent, but,  of  course,  impossible  level;  for  those  they  have 
transformed  into  a  hideous  kind  of  equality  must  finally  perish, 
and  in  the  whole  tropical  centre  of  the  continent,  ultimately 
become  extinct.  Meanwhile  labor,  production,  and  civilization 
are  tending  to  the  same  common  extinction  with  the  white 
blood.  In  Jamaica,  Barbadoes,  and  some  other  islands  where 
there  is  yet  a  considerable  white  population,  the  negro,  despite 
the  influence  of  the  government,  is  kept  in  a  certain  restraint. 
He  labors  little,  it  is  true,  but  with  little  patches  of  land  he 
grows  bananas  and  other  products  that  in  that  genial  clime 
enable  him  to  live  in  a  certain  comfort  (to  him),  and  thus — 
while  the  same  being  would  rapidly  perish  in  Massachusetts — ■ 
to  multiply  himself.     The  horrible  traffic  in  Mongols  or  coolies. 


S30        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

since  the  negro  was  released  from  labor  in  the  islands,  has 
enabled  the  owners  of  some  of  the  former  flourishing  planta- 
tions to  continue  their  cultivation,  and  to  furnish  in  some  places 
almost  their  former  products,  and  thus  to  deceive  the  world 
and  to  delude  those  who  desire  to  be  deluded  in  respect  to  the 
non-productiveness  of  the  free  negro. 

But,  as  has  been  shown,  the  negro  neither  does  nor  can 
labor,  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  His  dominating  sensualism 
forbids  such  a  thing,  while  his  limited  intellect,  like  that  of 
the  child,  renders  him  unable  to  labor  for  a  remote  result,  or 
deny  himself  immediate  indulgence,  in  order  to  acquire  an 
ultimate  good.  In  his  natural  state,  and  isolated  from  the 
white  man,  he  calls  into  exercise  his  powerful  senses  for  his 
immediate  wants,  and  with  no  winter  or  barren  seasons  to  con- 
tend against,  and  favored  with  a  soil  with  its  many  and  nutri- 
tious fruits  growing  spontaneously  all  about  him,  he  has  little 
more  to  do  than  to  pluck  and  eat.  In  this  way  he  lives,  multi- 
plies himself,  and  enjoys  an  animal  existence,  which  to  us 
seems  miserable  enough  certainly,  and,  in  comparison  with  his 
condition  at  the  South,  is  indeed  miserable  enough ;  but  to 
this  he  is  rapidly  tending  in  the  West  Indian  Islands,  and  the 
whole  power  of  the  British  and  other  European  governments 
are  rapidly  forcing  him  into  this  condition. 

In  Hayti  he  is  now  nearing  this  final  condition — this  inher- 
ent and  original  Africanism  to  which  he  is  tending  in  the  whole 
of  tropical  America.  Seventy  years  ago  the  mulattoes  rebel- 
led against  the  whites ;  they  excited  and  impelled  the  negroes 
to  join  them ;  the  whites — only  twenty-five  thousand — were 
immolated  or  driven  from  the  island.  Then  came  the  conflict 
among  themselves ;  the  mulattoes  and  mongrels  in  turn  were 
massacred,  or  sought  shelter  in  San  Domingo,  the  Spanish  part 
of  the  island,  and  the  negroes,  masters  of  the  field,  with  their 
iiatrjal  tendencies  unchecked,  without  guides  or  masters,  have 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGEO.        331 

finally  culminated  in  Soloitque — a  typical  negro — a  serpent 
worshipper  and  Obi-man,  as  chief  or  emperor. 

When  the  French  expedition,  under  the  command  of  Gene- 
ral Le  Clerc,  failed  to  recover  the  island  m  1803,  and  the 
Haytians,  though  their  independence  was  not  recognized  by 
the  French  republic,  were  able,  through  the  aid  of  the  British, 
to  assume  the  position  of  an  independent  power,  they  com- 
menced a  national  existence  peculiarly  favored  in  many  re- 
spects. The  mulattoes — generally  the  children  of  French 
masters — were  many  of  them  highly  educated,  having  been 
sent  to  Paris  for  this  purpose  in  childhood.  They  had  the 
sympathy  of  the  French  people,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  world 
on  their  side,  for  the  worst  tyrants  and  oppressors  of  Europe, 
while  laboring  with  all  their  might  to  crush  out  the  liberty  of 
white  men,  were  then  as  now  deeply  interested  in  the  freedom 
of  the  black.  Moreover,  they  had  the  physical  as  well  as  the 
moral  support  of  England,  and  without  a  single  enemy  in  the 
world  to  embarrass  their  progress.  But  though  without 
foreign  enemies  or  wars  of  any  kind  to  check  their  advance, 
with  the  finest  climate  and  most  fertile  soil  in  the  world,  they 
have  rapidly  collapsed  into  their  natural  Africanism. 

Internal  commotions,  as  now  in  Mexico, began  at  once  among 
the  mongrels,  and  bloodshed  and  misery  of  every  kind  pre- 
vailed until  tins  element  was  necessarily  destroyed,  and  the 
stolid,  idle,  and  useless  savagism  of  Africa  became  the  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  these  people.  Two  causes  alone  have  held 
in  check  the  tendencies  to  Africanism — the  white  blood  and 
the  surrounding  civilization.  The  mongrel  element,  though 
constantly  diminishing  in  numbers,  naturally  governed,  until  it 
became  so  feeble  that  Solouque,  a  typical  negro  and  an  embodi- 
ment of  Africanism,  of  fetichism,  and  a  worshiper  of  Obi,  seized 
the  supreme  power  and  inaugurated  savagism.  Accident  of 
some  kind  or  other  has  recently  pushed  this  worthy  aside  and 


882        THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

placed  one  Jefflrard,  a  griffe,  or  "  colored  man,"  or  mulatto,  in 
power,  who  calls  himself  president,  but  he  will  doubtless  soon 
give  place  to  some  negro  chief.  Nevertheless,  there  is  a  con« 
siderable  infusion  of  white  blood  still  in  Ilayti,  and  therefore, 
the  true  negro  condition — the  natural  condition  when  isola- 
ted, the  condition  it  has  always  been  in  and  that  it  always 
must  remain  in  when  isolated  from  the  Caucasian  man — is  not 
yet  entirely  restored.  Again,  the  surrounding  civilization — 
the  contact  with  Europeans  and  Americans  that  commerce  or 
trade  in  fruits  growing  almost  spontaneously  together,  with 
the  few  adventurous  spirits  always  attracted  to  such  a  fertile 
soil  as  Hayti  would,  perhaps,  always  give  to  its  people  a  some- 
what different  external  character  from  the  African  type. 

But  if  we  can  be  permitted  to  suppose  the  absence  of  these 
things — the  utter  extinction  of  the  Caucasian  innervation  and 
absolute  isolation  of  the  negro  as  in  Africa — then,  in  the  trop- 
ics, the  same  climate  with  similar  soils,  in  short,  similar  cir- 
cumstances to  those  surrounding  him  in  Africa,  of  course, 
the  negro  type,  the  negro  nature,  the  negro  being,  would  be 
the  same  as  it  always  has  been  and  is  now  in  Africa.  On  the 
coast,  where  he  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  white  man,  where 
there  are  a  good  many  with  white  blood  in  their  veins,  who 
therefore  retain  to  some  extent  the  habitudes  of  the  superior 
race,  the  traditions  and  historic  recollections  of  their  former 
masters  are  preserved.  But  in  the  interior,  where  the  negro 
is  permitted  to  live  out  his  African  tendencies,  he  has  lost  all 
knowledge  of  the  events  of  seventy  years  ago.  History,  reli- 
gion, even  the  French  language  has  disappeared,  and'  in  their 
place  there  is  Obiism  and  African  dialects,  while  probably  not 
one  in  a  thousand  has  any  perception,  knowledge,  or  recollec- 
tion whatever  of  Christophe,  Dessalines,  or  others  of  those  no- 
torious chiefs  who  a  little  over  half  a  century  since  filled  the 
island  with  the  terror  of  their  names.     As  observed,  the  uttei 


THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  KEGEO.        833 

extinction  of  the  Caucasian  innervation  and  absolute  isola- 
tion of  the  negro  in  Hayti,  would  of  necessity  end  in  corn 
plete  Africanism,  and  to  this  end,  this  final  culmination  of 
savagism  the  whole  British  and  European  policy  is  now  neces- 
sarily  tending.  It  is  true,  the  existence  of  a  white  govern- 
ment by  mere  juxtaposition  as  well  as  the  prestige  of  power, 
holds  in  check  the  strong  tendencies  to  Africanism,  but  the 
policy — the  official  employment  of  negroes  always  carrying 
with  it  under  the  monarchical  regime  social  importance — tends 
powerfully  to  degrade  the  white  blood  and  induce  amalgama- 
tion, to  drag  after  it,  of  course,  that  inevitable  extinction  of  the 
mongrel  progeny  which  tho  Almighty  has  decreed  forever  and 
everywhere. 

Thus,  the  British  "anti-slavery"  policy  tends  rapidly  and 
constantly  to  the  restoration  of  Africanism,  to  savagery — to  the 
building  up  of  a  mighty  barbarism  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
American  continent — to  the  establishment  of  a  huge  heathen- 
ism that  shall  spread  itself  over  fifty  degrees  of  the  most  fertile 
and  beautiful  portion  of  the  New  World.  This,  then,  is  the 
legitimate  termination  of  that  wide-spread  delusion  of  modern 
times,  which  has  drawn  into  its  fatal  and  monstrous  embrace 
multitudes  of  honest  and  well-meaning  men,  and  while  it 
already  has  worked  out  evils  so  stupendous  as  to  be  almost  be- 
yond our  powers  of  computation  to  measure  them,  and  never 
in  an  instance,  direct  or  indirect,  done  the  slightest  good  what- 
ever, at  this  moment  it  threatens  to  inflict  even  greater  evils  on 
the  world  than  those  it  has  hitherto  cursed  it  with.  The  pro- 
cess through  which  all  this  mischief  is  worked  out  can  not  or 
need  not  be  mistaken — a  man  may  run  and  read  it,  and  though 
a  fool  understand  it.  It  is  this:  1st.  The  dogma  of  a  single 
race— that  the  negro  is  a  black-white  man.  2d.  The  "anti- 
slavery"  policy  of  Pitt,  nominally  to  put  down  the  "  slave 
tradu"     3d.  "Emancipation" — and  whites   and  negroes   de- 


334  THE     FUTURE     OF    THE     NliGEO. 

clared  equal.  4th.  The  policy  of  European  governments  to 
elevate  negroes  and  depress  whites,  inducing  social  equality 
and  ccasequeut  amalgamation.  5th.  Absorption  of  the  white 
blood  by  mongrelism.  6th.  Sterility  and  extinction  of  the 
mixed  element.  7th.  Restoration  of  the  African  type  and 
consequent  savagism — a  huge  heathenism — indeed,  Africa  itself 
literally  lifted  up  and  planted  down  in  the  center  of  the  New 
World — thus  erecting  a  mighty  barbarism  directly  in  the  path 
of  American  civilization ;  and  which,  in  all  coming  time,  as  the 
ally  or  instrument  of  European  monarchists,  shall  beat  back 
the  waves  of  democracy,  and  dwarf  the  growth  and  limit  the 
power  of  the  American  Republic. 

The  "  free  negro"  in  our  midst  perishes ;  but  in  the  tropics, 
in  his  own  climate,  he  poisons  and  destroys  the  white  blood, 
and  then  relapses  into  his  inherent  and  organic  Africanism, 
toward  which  he  is  rapidly  impelled  by  the  British  "  anti- 
slavery  policy."  If  that  policy  could  ever  be  successful — if 
fifty  degrees  of  latitude  in  the  heart  of  this  continent  should 
ever  be  permanently  turned  over  to  free  negroism,  or  ever 
occupied  by  a  huge  barbarism — which  should  not  alone  ren- 
der the  fairest  portion  of  the  New  World  a  barren  waste,  but 
interrupt  that  great  law  of  progress  which  impels  us  onward, 
to  carry  our  system,  our  republican  idea  of  government,  and 
our  civilization,  over  the  whole  "  boundless  continent,"  then, 
indeed,  might  the  friends  of  freedom  despair  of  the  future. 
But  it  is  not  possible  that  the  rising  civilization  of  America 
is  to  be  thus  broken  down  by  the  monarchists  of  the  Old 
World.  The  law  of  progress — of  national  growth,  of  very 
necessity — that  has  carried  us  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  will  continue  to  impel  us  onward,  and  to 
restore  the  rapidly  perishing  civilization  of  the  great  tropical 
center  of  the  continent.  All  humane  and  good  men  desire 
that  this  grand  result  shall  be  worked  out  by  moral  causf  s,  by 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  NEGRO.        835 

the  exposure  of  the  monstrous  delusion  in  regard  to  negroes 
that  has  been  productive  of  so  much  evil ;  but  either  through 
an  appeal  to  reason  or  to  the  sword — through  the  operation 
of  natural  causes  or  through  bloodshed  and  national  suffering 
— the  final  end  must  be  the  restoration  of  the  negro  to  his 
normal  condition,  and  consequent  restoration  of  civilization  in 
the  finest  portion  of  our  great  continent. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

It  has  been  shown  in  the  foregoing  pages  of  this  work  how 
that  providential  arrangement  of  human  affairs,  in  which  the 
negro  is  placed  in  natural  juxtaposition  with  the  white  man, 
has  resulted  in  the  freedom  of  the  latter  and  the  general  well- 
being  of  both.  It  has  been  seen  how  a  subordinate  and 
widely  different  social  element  in  Virginia  and  other  States, 
naturally  gave  origin  to  new  ideas  and  new  modes  of  thought, 
which,  thrusting  aside  the  mental  habits  and  political  notions 
brought  from  the  Old  "World,  naturally  culminated  in  the 
grand  idea  of  1776,  and  the  establishment  of  a  new  political 
system,  based  on  the  natural,  organic,  and  everlasting  equal- 
ity of  the  race.  It  has  been  seen,  moreover,  how  the  great 
civil  revolution  of  1800,  which,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, restored  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  republican  principles, 
saved  the  Northern  laboring  and  producing  classes  from  tli6 
rule  of  an  oligarchy,  otherwise  unavoidable,  however  it  might 
have  been  disguised  by  republican  formulas. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  political  history  of 
the  country  since  1800  to  demonstrate  the  vital  importance — 
indeed,  the  measureless  benefit — of  what,  by  an  absurd  perver- 
sion of  terms,  has  been  called  negro  slavery,  to  the  freedom, 
progress,  and  prosperity  of  the  laboring  and  producing  classes 
of  the  North,  and,  indeed,  to  all  mankind.  It  is  seen  that  the 
existence  of  an  inferior  race — the  presence  of  a  natural  sub- 
stratum in  the  political  society  of  the  New  World — has  resulted 


CONCLUSION.  83  J 

in  the  creation  of  a  new  political  and  social  order,  and  relieved 
the  producing  classes  from  that  abject  dependence  on  capital 
which  in  Europe,  and  especially  in  England,  renders  them 
mere  beasts  of  burthen  to  a  fraction  of  their  brethren.  The 
simple  but  transcendent  fact,  that  capital  and  labor  are  united 
at  the  South — that  the  planter,  or  so-called  slaveholder,  is, 
per  se  and  of  necessity,  the  defender  of  the  rights  of  the  pro- 
ducing classes — this  simple  fact  is  the  key  to  our  political  his- 
tory, and  the  hinging-point  of  our  party  politics  for  half  a 
century  past. 

The  Southern  planter  and  Northern  farmer — the  producing 
classes — a  Southern  majority  and  a  Northern  minority — have 
governed  the  country,  fought  all  its  battles,  acquired  all  its 
territories,  and  conducted  the  nation  step  by  step  to  its  pres- 
ent position  of  strength,  power,  and  grandeur.  Just  as  stead- 
ily a  Northern  majority  and  a  Southern  minority  have  opposed 
this  progress,  and  labored  blindly,  doubtless,  to  return  to  the 
system  of  the  federalists,  indeed  to  the  European  idea  of  class 
distinctions,  and  to  render  the  government  an  instrument  for 
the  benefit  of  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many. 

They  have  sought  to  create  national  banks ;  demanded  favors 
for  those  engaged  in  manufactures ;  for  others  engaged  in 
Northern  fisheries ;  for  the  benefit  of  bands  of  jobbers  and 
speculators,  under  pretence  of  internal  improvements ;  in  short, 
the  Northern  majority  have  labored  continually  to  render  the 
government,  as  in  England,  an  instrument  for  benefiting  classes 
at  the  expense  of  the  great  body  of  the  people. 

All  these  efforts,  however,  have  been  defeated  by  the  union 
of  Northern  and  Southern  producers,  and  mainly  by  the  latter. 
A  large  majority  of  the  votes  in  Congress  against  special  legis- 
lation and  schemes  of  corruption  have  been  those  of  so-called 
slaveholders ;  and  in  those  extraordinary  instances  when  North- 
ern  representatives  of  agricultural  constituencies  have  proved 

15 


838  CONCLUSION. 

faithless,  and  these  schemes  ''worked"  through  Congress, 
"  slaveholders"  in  the  Presidential  chair  have  interposed  the 
veto,  and  saved  the  laboring  and  producing  classes  from  this 
dangerous  legislation,  and  the  government  from  being  per- 
verted into  an  instrument  of  mischief. 

Such  has  been  our  political  and  current  party  history,  and 
from  the  nature  and  necessities  of  things,  every  "  extension  of 
slavery,"  or  every  expansion  of  territory,  must  in  the  future, 
as  it  has  in  the  past,  strengthen  the  cause  of  the  producing 
classes,  and  give  greater  scope  and  power  to  the  American 
idea  of  government. 

The  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  of  Florida,  of  Texas,  etc.,  of 
those  great  producing  States  on  the  Gulf  Coast,  has  nearly 
overwhelmed  the  anti-republican  tendencies  of  the  North,  and 
rendered  almost  powerless  those  combinations  of  capital  and 
speculation  which  have  always  endangered  the  purity  and  sim- 
plicity of  our  republican  system,  and  thus  the  rights  and  safety 
of  the  laboring  and  producing  millions  everywhere. 

Indeed,  it  is  a  truth,  a  simple  fact,  that  can  not  be  too  often 
repeated,  that  in  precise  proportion  to  the  amount  or  extent  of 
so-called  "  slaveholding" — of  the  number  of  negroes  in  their 
normal  condition — is  freedom  rendered  secure  to  the  white 
millions  of  the  North.  And  when  in  the  progress  of  time 
Cuba  and  Central  America,  and  the  whole  tropical  center  of 
the  continent  is  added  to  the  Union  and  placed  in  the  same 
relation  to  New  York  and  Ohio  that  Mississippi,  Alabama, 
etc.,  are  now,  then  it  is  evident  that  the  democratic  or  Amer- 
ican idea  of  government  will  be  securely  established  forever, 
and  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  producing  millions  who  ask 
nothing  from  government  but  its  protection,  will  be  no  longer 
endangered  by  those  anti-republican  tendencies  which  in  the 
North  have  so  long  conflicted  with  the  natural  development 


CONCLUSION.  839 

of  our  system,  and  struggled  so  long  and  fiercely  against  its 
extension. 

If  this  freedom  and  prosperity  of  the  white  man  rested  on 
wrong  or  oppression  of  the  negro,  then  it  would  be  valueless, 
for  the  Almighty  has  evidently  designed  that  all  His  creatures 
should  be  permitted  to  live  out  the  life  to  which  He  has  adapt- 
ed them.  But  when  all  the  facts  are  considered,  and  the 
negro  population  of  the  South  contrasted  with  any  similar 
number  of  their  race  now  or  at  any  other  time  in  human  ex- 
perience, then  it  is  seen  that,  relatively  considered,  they  are, 
perhaps,  benefited  to  even  a  greater  extent  than  the  white 
population  themselves. 

The  efforts,  as  has  been  shown,  to  reverse  the  natural  order 
of  things — to  force  the  negro  into  the  position  of  the  white 
man — are  not  merely  failures,  but  frightful  cruelties — cruelties 
that  among  ourselves  end  in  the  extinction  of  these  poor  crea- 
tures, while  in  the  tropics  it  destroys  the  white  man  and 
impels  the  negro  into  barbarism. 

In  conclusion,  therefore,  it  is  clear,  or  will  be  clear  to  every 
mind  that  grasps  the  facts  of  this  great  question,  with  the  in- 
ductive facts,  or  the  unavoidable  inferences  that  belong  to  them, 
that  any  American  citizen,  party,  sect,  or  class  among  us,  so 
blinded,  bewildered,  and  besotted  by  foreign  theories  and  false 
mental  habits  as  to  labor  for  negro  "  freedom" — to  drag  down 
their  own  race,  or  to  thrust  the  negro  from  his  normal  condi- 
tion, is  alike  the  enemy  of  both,  a  traitor  to  his  blood  and  at 
war  with  the  decrees  of  the  Eternal. 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE   INDIAN   OR   ABORIGINAL   RACES   OF   AMERICA. 

The  Indian  or  aboriginal  of  this  continent,  what  is  he,  and 
where  does  he  come  from?  This  would  seem  easy  enough  to 
reply  to,  and  yet  writers,  educated,  and  even  some  scientific 
men,  have  so  confused  and  bewildered  the  matter,  that  few 
people  have  any  precise  or  true  knowledge  of  it. 

The  Indian  races  of  America  are  all  the  same  species  from 
the  Columbia  River  to  Cape  Horn,  and  they  were  created  here 
just  as  absolutely  and  unmistakably  as  were  all  the  animals, 
plants,  and  forests  that  belong  to  this  continent. 

How  or  when  or  why  this  is  so,  we  are  not  permitted  to 
know,  for  then  we  would  be  as  wise  as  the  Almighty  Creator 
himself;  and  though  some  men  are  vain  enough  and  impious 
enough  to  claim  to  have  some  secret  and  mysterious  knowledge 
of  the  divine  councils  in  this  respect,  common  sense  and  the 
nature  of  things  forbid  us  to  listen  to  their  nonsense. 

Some  have  supposed  that  at  some  remote  period  the  ances- 
tors of  the  people  discovered  by  the  Spanish  adventurers  on 
this  coutinent  crossed  over  Behring's  Strait,  and  that  very 
likely  there  was  a  continuous  link  of  islands  connecting  the 
continents  of  Asia  and  America.  Others  have  fancied  regular 
migrations,  at  various  times,  from  the  Asiatic  continent ;  and 
even  apparently  intelligent  persons  in  other  respects  have  sup- 
posed that  the  "  ten  lost  tribes"  found  their  way  to  America. 
Indeed,  this  is  rather  a  favorite  speculation  with  a  great  many 
who  have  undertaken  to  account  for  the  presence  of  human 


2  EACE8      OF      AMERICA. 

beings  on  this  continent ;  and  oddly  enough,  a  large  and  noto- 
rious religions  sect  have  not  only  accepted  it,  but  have  made  it 
the  fundamental  basis  of  their  religious  belief.  The  Mormon 
chief,  Joseph  Smith,  based  his  "  Revelation"  on  this  speculation, 
and  it  is  believed  that  even  his  far  better  informed  and  more 
respectable  successor,  Brigham  Young,  still  holds  to  this 
assumption  of  the  Mormon  prophet. 

With  a  more  advanced  and  accurate  knowledge  of  natural 
phenomena  and  fixed  laws  than  now  obtains  among,  ordinarily 
speaking,  educated  men,  a  great  many  things  that,  in  our  time, 
pass  current  and  scarcely  without  question,  will  be  exploded, 
and  not  only  rendered  uncertain  but  entirely  foolish,  as  they 
necessarily  conflict  with  the  laws  of  nature.  And  this  is  clearly 
the  case  with  Mormonism  and  the  assumed  revelations  of 
the  Mormon  chiefs.  They  declare,  we  believe,  that  Mormon 
himself  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  "  lost  tribes"  and  pro- 
genitors of  the  people  found  here  by  Columbus  and  the  Span- 
ish discoverers  of  America ;  and,  as  this  could  not  be  so,  as 
the  native  or  Indian  species  of  this  continent  was  as  absolutely 
and  unmistakably  created  here  as  the  forests  were,  the 
Revelation  itself,  based  on  a  foolish  falsehood,  must  be,  of 
course,  equally  false.  Even  if  the  most  improbable  migration 
of  people  from  Palestine  to  America  were  admitted,  it  is  as 
absurd  to  fancy  Indians  originating  from  Hebrews,  who  were 
pure  Caucasians,  as  to  fancy  owls  originating  from  eagles,  or 
bull-dogs  from  greyhounds ;  and  therefore  it  is  repeated,  the 
Mormon  "  Revelation,"  being  in  conflict  with  the  unchangeable 
laws  of  nature,  is  not  only  untrue  but  nonsensical. 

The  native  races,  as  observed,  are  the  same  species  through- 
out the  continent ;  and  though  they  approximate  closer  to  the 
Mongol  of  Asia  than  to  the  Caucasian  of  Europe,  it  were,  of 
course,  just  as  impossible  that  they  could  originate  from  the 
former  as  from  the  latter.     The  word  Indian,  so  commonly 


THE     INDIAN      OR     ABORIGINAL  3 

applied,  was  given  to  the  natives  of  America  with  the  belief, 
no  doubt,  that  there  was  a  unity  of  inhabitants,  if  not,  indeed, 
of  continents. 

It  is  a  corruption  of  the  term  Hindoo,  and  well  illustrates  the 
loose  and  indefinite  knowledge  of  those  who,  very  learned,  it 
may  be,  in  certain  subjects  or  branches  of  knowledge,  are 
quite  ignorant  of  others,  but,  unconscious  of  it,  talk  with  such 
confidence  and  ease  that  the  whole  educated  public  accept 
their  dictum  without  a  question  or  doubt  of  any  kind  what- 
ever. The  Hindoos  were  originally  a  conquering  horde  or 
dynasty  of  Caucasians,  but,  intermixed  with  the  conquered 
Mongolians  of  the  peninsula  of  India,  the  white  blood,  save, 
perhaps,  in  a  "  royal  family,"  or  a  few  families,  became 
extinct  in  time  ;  .  so  that  these  mighty  populations  subse- 
quently fell  an  easy  conquest  to  a  petty  company  of  English 
traders. 

Columbus  never  dreamed,  even,  of  a  new  world.  He  only 
conceived  of  a  shorter  route  to  India  than  that  recently  dis- 
covered by  the  Portuguese,  and  when  he  found  America,  he 
called  it  India ;  and  hence,  not  Hindoo,  but  the  word  Indian, 
now  universally  applied  to  the  aborigines  of  this  continent. 

There  were,  no  doubt,  numerous  instances  of  Caucasian 
intruders  at  long  intervals ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that 
any  of  them  came  from  Asia.  They  were,  most  likely, 
shipwrecked  mariners,  though  it  is  certainly  possible  that  at 
some  remote  period  they  came  over  as  emigrants,  or,  at  all 
events,  adventurers,  something  like  their  Spanish  successors. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  or  whatever  the  form,  or  period,  or 
circumstances  surrounding  these  intrusive  Caucasians,  it  is 
certain  that  all  the  antiquities  discovered  on  this  continent  are 
the  result  of  Caucasian  intrusion.  We  know  this  must  be  so, 
for  the  good  and  sufficient  reason  that  it  is  the  only  historic 
race  or  species;  for  even  those  great  and  unsightly  structures 


4  RACES      OF      AMERICA. 

found  in  China,  and  among  other  Mongolian  rations,  largely 
partake  of  a  Caucasian  innovation. 

And  more  conclusive  still,  the  white  man  alone  migrates, 
and  among  all  the  Chinese  that  were  attracted  by  California 
gold,  there  was  probably  not  one  instance  of  their  reaching 
there  through  Chinese  means,  or  one  single  individual  that 
did  not  intend  to  return  to  his  country.  A  single  ship's  crew 
of  white  men  reaching  America  would  result  in  a  certain  prog- 
ress, as  we  call  it,  that  is,  something  like  regular  government, 
manufactures,  etc. ;  but  in  a  few  generations,  their  mongrel  pro- 
geny becoming  extinct,  there  would  be  nothing  left  to  indicate 
their  former  presence,  save  those  absurd  "  antiquities"  which 
Stephens  and  Squier  and  Schoolcraft  and  others  fancy  they 
find  in  such  abundance  scattered  over  the  new  world. 

These  writers  on  "American  Antiquities"  may  be  very 
learned  and  able  men  in  many  respects,  but  being  utterly  igno- 
rant of  the  simple  but  elementary  laws  that  distinguish  the 
several  species  of  mankind,  all  that  they  assume  in  the  prem- 
ises is  not  only  false,  but  must  be  so  of  course. 

The  "  New  World"  discovered  by  the  Spaniards  was  liter- 
ally a  new  world  in  every  thing  to  the  European  mind  ;  for  not 
only  its  human  creatures,  its  animals  and  plants  and  forests, 
but  its  fishes,  insects — every  thing  that  had  life  in  it — was  new 
to  Europeans,  and  not  one  single  species  of  any  kind  or  form 
whatever  had  ever  been  seen  before.  Even  its  soils  were  radi- 
cally different  from  the  old  world ;  and  though  a  beneficent 
Creator  has  deigned,  for  the  good  of  his  creatures,  to  permit 
some  few  exceptions,  both  of  animals  and  plants,  and  therefore 
there  is  a  certain  approximation  of  large  districts,  in  this 
respect,  to  the  old  world,  the  vast  proportion  of  this  conti- 
nent has  altogether  different  soils  from  those  of  Europe.  It 
was,  then,  the  new  world,  not  simply  because  before  unknown, 
but  because  all  that  belonged  to  it  was  new  to  the  European 


THE    INDIAN     OR    ABORIGINAL  5 

mind,  that  Columbus  and  his  companions  discovered  just  as 
the  fifteenth    century    was   drawing  to  a  close. 

The  native  organism  has  been  so  little  studied  that  it  is 
somewhat  difficult  where  to  place  it;  but  with  5  to  8  per  cent, 
more  brain  than  the  negro,  its  relative  position  on  this  con- 
tinent may  be  easily  comprehended.  Foolish  and  sentimental 
people,  with  the  stupid  theory  that  Indians  are  simply  savage 
Caucasians,  and  that  education  can  transform  them  into 
civilization,  have  endowed  them  with  many  savage  virtues,  and 
it  is  said  that  some  people  have  been  vain  of  claiming  affinity 
with  these  subordinate  and  less  developed  beings.  Indeed, 
the  very  apathy  and  absence  of  sensibility  that  enables  an 
Indian  to  sing  his  death-song  amid  the  flames  that  consume 
him  has  led  a  great  many^persons  to  fancy  a  high  and  noble 
nature  rising  above  the  seeming  physical  pain.  Like  the  still 
more  obtuse  and  apathetic  negro,  the  Indian  feels  but  little 
pain  in  these  things,  and  the  mind  or  soul  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  matter,  or,  at  all  events,  perceives  it  dimly. 

In  the  more  genial  latitudes  of  Mexico  and  South  America, 
the  native  had  made  some  progress,  probably  all  the  progress 
the  species  is  capable  of  when  isolated,  and  it  is  probable  that 
it  had  been  in  that  condition  centuries  or  even  thousands  of 
years  when  discovered  by  the  Spaniards. 

The  stories  told  by  Bernal  Diaz  and  his  companions,  and 
repeated  by  Prescott,  Helps,  and  others,  of  the  magnifi- 
cence of  Cholula,  Mexico,  etc.,  are  the  sheerest  nonsense 
imaginable — not  only  untrue  even  in  approximation,  but 
necessarily  so ;  for  the  native  mind  could  no  more  build  such 
supposed  cities,  temples,  etc.,  than  it  could  change  the  color  of 
the  native  skin,  or  increase  the  vigor,  or  change  the  form  of 
the  native  brain.  They  collected  at  times,  as  at  Cholula  and 
Tlascala,  in  villages  built  of  adobe,  or  unburnt  bricks,  perhaps 
to  the  extent  of  several  thousand  persons,  and  a  certain  number 


O  EACES     OF     AMERICA. 

of  these  villages  among  the  lakes  in  the  valleys  of  Mexico  was 
sufficient  pabulum  for  the  excited  imaginations  of  the  Spanish 
conquerors  to  transform  them  into  mighty  cities. 

Montezuma  himself  was,  no  doubt,  a  Mexican  deity, 
rather  than  earthly  prince ;  but  with  all  the  lower  species  of 
mankind,  there  is  a  certain  connection  between  the  visible  and 
invisible  powers  ;  and  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  were  governed 
more  by  their  monstrous  gods  and  bloody  priests  than  by 
those  fanciful  governors  or  lieutenants  of  Montezuma  the 
Spanish  writers  have  represented.  They  had,  it  is  true,  become 
cultivators  to  a  certain  extent,  indeed  coarsely  fabricated  some 
things  that  looked  like  manufactures ;  but  the  single  fact  that 
they  had  never  advanced  to  workers  in  iron,  or  metals  of 
any  kind,  tells  the  whole  story  of  "  native  Americans  "  on  this 
continent.  Gold  and  silver  ornaments  were  found  in  Mexico 
and  Peru  by  the  Spanish  adventurers,  but  they  were  the 
simple  metals  beaten  into  fantastic  shapes,  no  doubt,  by  stones 
or  flints.  Even  the  knives  the  priests  cut  open  the  breasts  of 
their  victims  with  were  of  flint,  and  some  of  these  rude 
implements  are  still  preserved,  and  show  the  feeble  develop- 
ment of  these  people  in  their  most  advanced  phase.  Perhaps 
nothing  can  so  well  illustrate  the  non-capabilities  of  the 
aboriginal  race  as  a  simple  statement  of  what  Cholula  and 
the  Pyramid  of  Cholula  presents  to  the  traveler  now. 

The  writer  has  stood  on  the  very  spot  where  Cortez  sat 
and  wrote  his  famous  letter  to  Charles  V.  After  the  con- 
quest of  the  city  of  Cholula,  Cortez  says,  he  sits  on  the 
summit  of  the  pyramid  itself,  grander  and  more  stupendous 
than  those  of  Egypt ;  and  at  its  base  is  the  great  city,  with  its 
two  hundred  thousmd  people,  and  sitting  there  he  can  see 
twelve  hundred  mosques,  and  count  four  hundred  temples  or 
religious  edifices  besides. 

This   pyramid   is   simply  one  of  the  numerous  cerros  or 


THE      INDIAN     OR     ABORIGINAL  / 

conical  hills,  that  are  frequent  in  the  plains  and  valleys  »f 
Mexico,  and  rises  to  an  altitude  of  several  hundred  feet, 
There  are  some  artificial  additions  on  the  sides  of  this  hill, 
made  of  adobe,  or  sunburnt  brick,  which,  probably,  were  con- 
structed by  the  natives  as  burial  places,  especially  for  the 
human  victims  offered  up  as  sacrifices  at  the  Temple  to  the 
Sun,  that  stood  on  the  summit  of  the  pyramid. 

The  sacrificial  stone  on  which  the  victim  was  bound,  and 
the  flint  knife  with  which  the  priests  laid  open  the  breast, 
and  tore  out  the  still  palpitating  heart,  to  show  to  the 
people,  are  still  to  be  seen  ;  but  that  Temple  to  the  Sun,  and 
that  mighty  city  that  Cortez  saw  so  clearly,  have  disappeared 
so  utterly,  that  not  even  a  single  stone  or  brick  exists  to  note 
that  they  ever  existed.  There  is  nothing,  not  even  an  inden- 
tation, or  the  slightest  unevenness  in  the  level  greensward 
at  the  base"  of  the  pyramid,  though  it  was  only  three  and  a 
half  centuries  ago ;  and  the  present  city  of  Puebla,  built  in  the 
vicinity  by  the  Spaniards,  would  no  doubt  leave  some  memo- 
rial of  its  present  existence  ten  thousand  years  hence.  The 
simple  truth,  therefore,  is,  there  was  no  city  of  Cholula,  or 
pyramid  of  Cholula,  or  Temple  to  the  Sun,  at  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  conquest.  There  was  nothing  but  an  Indian  village, 
only  a  degree  larger  than  Powhatan's,  in  Virginia,  with  a 
great  hill,  and  perhaps  an  Indian  lodge  of  some  kind  on  its 
summit,  where  the  native  medicine-men  offered  up  their  sacrifi- 
ces and  performed  their  bloody  incantations.  The  love  of  exag- 
geration in  the  Spanish  mind,  the  strange,  uncouth,  and  myste- 
rious New  World  that  confounded  them,  and,  more  than  all 
besides,  the  desire  to  astound  their  friends  at  home,  and  to 
exalt  their  own  wonderful  exploits  in  conquering  this  strange 
land,  fully  accpunt  for  and  explain  the  stories  of  the  con- 
querors. 

We  witness  a  certain  difference  in  the  development  of  the 


O  RACES     OF     AMERICA. 

great  master-races  of  mankind,  and  while  the  Egyptians, 
Hebrews,  Assyrians,  etc.,  were  great  and  prosperous,  Greece, 
Koine,  and  the  Mediterranean  were  unheard  of;  and  when 
the  latter  were  the  centre  of  civilization,  Northern  Germany, 
Gaul,  and  Britain  were  silent.  Or,  in  other  words,  in  the 
more  genial  clime  the  specific  capabilities  were  soonest  de- 
veloped, and  where  the  species  can  permanently  live  at  all,  it  de- 
velopes  its  capacities  most  rapidly.  So  with  the  native  or 
Indian  of  this  continent.  He  had,  no  doubt,  reached  his  utmost 
limit  in  the  valley  of  Mexico — most  likely  had  been  stationary 
for  thousands  of  years  when  discovered  by  the  Spaniards,  and 
in  all  reasonable  probability,  would  make  no  further  advance 
in  millions  of  years  to  come. 

Starting  from  this  advanced  condition  of  the  native  race, — 
a  condition  of  imperfect  agriculture,  without  commerce, 
manufactures,  or  trade  of  any  kind,  without  even  the  capacity 
of  working  metals  in  the  slightest  degree, — as  we  advance 
into  the  less  genial  latitudes  of  the  North,  we  find  the  native 
races  becoming  more  and  more  barbarous,  until  reaching 
Canada  and  the  Lakes,  where  they  are  simple  hunters  and  pre- 
datory tribes,  desperately  struggling  to  save  themselves  by  the 

struction  of  each  other. 
^There  is  nothing  in  the  warfare  or  enterprise  of  these 
northern  tribes  that  corresponds  with  the  migrations  and  the 
conquests  of  hordes  in  Asia.  The  escape  from  Egyptian  bond- 
age by  the  Hebrews,  leaving  out  of  view  its  sacred  character, 
was  a  rational  and  instinctive  desire  to  benefit  their  con- 
dition. So,  too,  the  conquests  of  Ghengis  Khan,  and  the 
Osmanli,  indeed,  that  of  the  Magyars  into  Europe, — all  these 
mighty  movements  were  impelled  by  the  same  instinctive 
desire  that  in  our  own  times  prompts  the  individual  Irish- 
man or  German  to  migrate  to  America  to  benefit  his  con« 
dition.     They  only  differ  in  form — in  the  former  case  a  horde 


>/ 


THE     INDIAN      OR     ABORIGINAL  9 

a  nation,  mighty  masses  of  men  seek  to  benefit  their  condition 
by  migrations,  conquests,  or  even  escapes,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Hebrews ;  and  in  modern  times,  individuals,  families,  and 
sometimes  whole  neighborhoods,  join  in  these  efforts  for  a 
better  condition.  But  it  is  only  the  great  master-race  that 
does  this,  either  en  masse  or  as  individuals,  for  it  alone  has  no 
limit  to  its  aspirations,  its  capabilities,  its  indefinite  perfectay 
bility.  JjThe  notion  of  General  Harrison  and  others,  therefore}" 
that  the  Toltecs  and  Aztecs  of  Mexico  migrated  from  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio  to  the  great  central  regions  of  the  con- 
tinent, is  simply  absurd.  The  hunter  and  predatory  tribes  prey 
upon,  and  often,  perhaps,  displace  each  other,  as  we  witness 
in  our  western  territories ;  but  this  has  none  of  that  instinctive 
impulse  for  a  better  condition  that  is  displayed  by  our  own 
race,  and  which  the  white  man  is  alone  capable  of  mani-  ./ 
fesfcing. 

yAll  other  species  of  men  are  stationary,  not  alone  in  theirN 
actual  capacities,  but  in   their   locations ;   and  whatever  the   I 
changes  in  the  location  of  the  numerous  Indian  tribes  of  the 
North  or  of  the  whole   continent,  are  blind  unmeaning  acci- 
dents, resulting  wholly  from  struggles,  not  to  improve  their 
condition,  but  to  preserve  their  actual  temporary  existence.")   „--^ 

Maize,  or  Indian  corn,  and  the  sweet  potato,  seem  to  have 
been  the  sole  products  of  such  agriculture  as  the  Spaniards 
found  in  Mexico,  and  the  former  was  also  cultivated  by  the 
Indian  women  in  the  extreme  North,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Genesee,  as  well  as  in  the  valleys  of  Puebla  and 
Mexico.  The  native  cotton  was  sometimes  fabricated  into  a 
kind  of  cloth,  but  the  nearest  approaches  to  any  thing  like 
manufactures  were  made  from  feathers  and  the  plumage  of 
the  birds  of  the  tropics.  The  famous  picture-writing,  which 
the  Spanish  adventurers  imposed  on  credulous  Europeans,  was 
like  most  of  their  stories,  without  even  a  foundation  in  fact. 


T 


10  THE     INDIAN     OR     ABORIGINAL 

The  Indian  or  native  brain  is  larger  and  better  organized 
than  that  of  the  negro,  and  therefore  his  capabilities  are  de- 
cidedly greater ;  and  while  the  latter  has  never  even  attempted 
an  alphabet,  or  to  compute  numbers,  there  were  probably  some 
rude  efforts  of  this  character  among  the  Aztecs  and  Toltecs  of 
Mexico. 

But  the  picture-writing,  which  was  borrowed  from  the 
Egyptian  hieroglyphic  practice  of  antique  times,  and  purported 
to  be  equally  perfect  among  the  Aztecs,  and  which  Lord 
Knaresborough  has  presented  to  the  world  in  several  large 
volumes  in  our  own  times,  is  a  sheer  imposture,  long  since 
exploded,  even  in  Europe.  The  antique  Egyptians  were  of  our 
own  race,  and  therefore  this  Mexican  picture-writing,  wThich 
resembled  the  former,  must  be  an  imposture ;  and  for  the  rest, 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  native  mind  could  no  more  do 
this  thing  than  it  could  change  the  color  of  its  skin,  or  modify 
its  physical  structure  in  any  respect. 

Save  that  universal  tendency  to  pairing  off,  common  to  the 
sexes  in  all  races,  and,  indeed,  to  some  extent,  among  the 
higher  orders  of  animals,  the  native  of  this  continent  had  no 
such  insitution  as  that  of  marriage.  They,  no  doubt,  were 
above  the  negro  in  this  respect,  whose  main  possessions  are 
his  women  and  children  ;  but  the  Spanish  writers  have  left  us 
nothing  that  can  be  relied  on.  All  the  social  relations  of  these 
people — marriage,  government,  etc.,  are  a  blank  to  us,  and  the 
utmost  that  we  know,  or  ever  can  know,  is  their  physical  struc- 
ture and  mental  capabilities,  as  displayed  in  the  circumstances 
that  surrounded  them  on  the  advent  of  their  European  con- 
querors. 

Such,  briefly  considered,  is  all  we  know,  or  can  know  of  the 
natives  of  this  continent,  when  discovered  by  the  Spanish 
adventurers  ;  and  it  may  all  be  summed  up  in  the  following 

1st.  It  was  literally  a  new  world,  and  of  all  its  multitudes  of 


EACES       OF      AMERICA.  11 

creatures,  not  one  single  species — men,  animals,  serpents, 
£shes,  insects,  or  plants — had  ever  been  seen  before ;  and  as  the 
native  has  no  instinct,  aspiration,  or,  indeed,  capacity  to  mi- 
grate, therefore  it  is  as  obvious  that  they  were  created  here  as 
that  the  forests  were. 

2d.  They  have  the  same  physical  structure,  the  same  brain, 
and  though  differing  slightly  in  degree,  manifest  the  same  exter- 
nal tendencies,  from  the  Canadas  to  Brazil,  and,  therefore,  con- 
stitute the  same  species. 

3d.  They  not  only  did  not  build  cities,  mosques,  temples, 
etc.,  but  their  limited  powers  are  forever  incapable  of  making 
any  permanent  impression  on  the  world  about  them. — There- 
fore, "  Indian  Antiquities"  is  an  absurd  misnomer  ;  and  the 
things  mistaken  for  such  are  the  results  of  Caucasian  intrusion. 

4th.  The  low  grade  of  the  native  in  the  human  scale — very 
greatly  below  the  Mongol,  and  decidedly  below  even  the 
Malay,  it  is  reasonable  to  say  that  they  had  long  since  reached 
their  utmost  limits,  when  discovered  by  Europeans ;  and  thou- 
sands, probably  millions,  of  years  hence,  would  never  have 
advanced  beyond  that  of  the  Aztecs  in  Mexico. 

5th.  Finally,  it  is  obvious  that  an  all-wise  and  beneficent 
Creator  has  designed  the  juxtaposition  of  races ;  for  otherwise, 
not  only  the  negro,  but  the  Indian  of  this  continent  would  be 
made  in  vain,  and  American  civilization  impossible. 


CHAPTER    II. 

SPANISH    CONQUEST    AND    POLICY. 

The  first  landing  of  the  Spanish  adventurers  was  on  the 
islands,  where  they  made  considerable  settlements  before  the 
conquest  of  the  mainland  was  undertaken  by  Hernando  Cortez 
and  his  companions.  They  found  these  islands  thinly  inhabited 
by  natives  apparently  even  more  primitive,  peaceful,  and 
docile  than  those  of  the  continent.  They  made  but  a  feeble 
resistance  to  the  conquerors ;  but  the  Spanish  lust  for  gold  was 
so  fierce  and  unsparing  that  they  loaded  them  down  with 
heavy  burthens  in  the  mines  and  on  the  plantations,  and 
finally  drove  them  into  a  resistance  that  rapidly  destroyed 
these  innocent  and  helpless  creatures. 

After  the  discovery  that  negroes  were  vastly  more  availa- 
ble for  tropical  labor,  the  natives,  save  that  their  lands  were 
taken  from  them,  were  left  to  shift  for  themselves ;  but  the 
pressure  of  the  European  race,  even  when  no  longer  loading 
them  down  with  burthens,  was  fatal  to  them,  and  except  in 
Porto  Rico,  Cuba,  and  Dominica,  they  have  entirely  disap- 
peared from  the  islands.  There  is  a  considerable  infusion  of 
Indian  blood  in  the  Spanish  portion  of  San  Domingo,  and  even 
in  Cuba;  but  in  Jamaica,  Barbadoes, — indeed,  all  the  other 
West  Indian  islands, — the  native  element  is  wholly  extinct. 
There  were  several  efforts  unsuccessfully  made  to  penetrate 
the  mainland ;  but  it  remained  for  Cortez  to  accomplish  this 
enterprise,  and  thus  to  figure  iu  history  as  the  chief  and  leader 


SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND      POLICY.  13 

of  the  most  romantic  and  wonderful  adventure  that  ever  had 
been  undertaken  in  the  world's  history.  Jason's  search  for  the 
golden  fleece,  Alexander's  invasion  of  India, — indeed,  the  then 
recent  Crusades  after  the  "Holy  Sepulchre," — were  all  dimmed 
and  dwai-fed  to  the  European  mind,  when  contrasted  with  this 
mysterious  and  wonderful  conquest  of  a  new  world. 

A  new  world,  vast  regions,  mighty  populations,  great  em- 
pires, and  great  cities,  were  suddenly  opened  to  the  old  world  by 
a  mere  handful  of  Spanish  heroes ;  and  great  and  mighty  as  he 
was,  Charles  the  Fifth  felt  no  doubt  that  even  Emperor  of 
Germany,  and  King  of  Spain,  were  titles  that  paled  before 
the  splendors  of  this  magnificent  empire  of  the  Indies,  con- 
ferred on  him  by  Cortez  and  his  brave  companions.  The  bare 
conception  of  such  an  undertaking ;  the  bold  adventure  into  a 
new  and  mysterious  region,  without  any  knowledge  of  it,  or 
of  the  people  they  were  going  to  contend  with — certainly  ren- 
der Cortez'  expedition  a  very  grand  one,  and,  viewed  from 
the  European  stand-point,  impressed  the  old  world  with  awe 
at  its  hardidood,  quite  as  much  as  it  did  the  young  and  enter- 
prising with  its  romance  and  mystery.  But,  aside  from  this, 
and  regarded  simply  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  less  difficult, 
and  called  into  action  less  heroism  and  endurance,  than  a  thou- 
sand other  things  that  have  happened  in  history. 

Five  hundred  Spaniards,  under  the  command  of  Cortez, 
landed  on  the  coast,  near  the  present  Vera  Cruz,  and  after 
some  explorations  into  the  interior,  not  only  refused  to  obey 
the  commands  of  the  governor  of  Cuba,  and  return  to  that 
island,  but  burned  his  ships,  it  is  said,  to  prevent  any  of  his 
followers  from  deserting  him.  He  had  some  dozen  or  so  small 
pieces  of  artillery,  eighty  cavalry,  covered  with  mail,  and, 
indeed,  his  infantry  were  so  protected  that  the  native  weapons 
were  harmless  against  them ;  and  therefore  whatever  the  dan- 
gers of  the  enterprise  from  want  of  food,  fatigue,  or  wandering 


14  SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND    POLICY. 

in  unknown  deserts,  every  man  of  his  command  knew  that  his 
life  was  safe  from  the  weapons  of  the  enemy.  This  gave  a 
courage  to  them  that  never  despaired ;  and  as  the  natives  had 
never  seen  horses  before,  when  they  were  confronted  by  the 
wonderful  and  awe-inspiring  creatures, — for  they  mistook  the 
horse  and  his  rider  for  centaurs, — they  were  overwhelmed  with 
terror.  Indeed,  the  Spanish  infantry — those  gods  who  had 
come  from  an  unknown  world,  with  their  fair  skins  and  flow- 
ing beards  and  majestic  presence — impressed  the  simple  natives 
with  profound  awe ;  and  when  Cortez  ordered  up  his  artillery, 
and  fired  a  general  salute,  they  fell  flat  upon  their  faces,  as  if 
all  the  demons  of  their  own  monster  religion  had  spoken 
at  once. 

He  first  built  a  fort,  and,  in  Yankee  fashion,  laid  out  a  town 
on  the  coast ;  and  then,  after  well  protecting  his  rear,  began 
that  romantic  march  which,  after  many  difficulties  and  some 
disasters,  terminated  in  the  capture  of  the  so-called  capital  of 
Mexico,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Spanish  dominion  in  the 
new  world. 

It  was  a  long  and  weary  march  over  burning  plains, 
mighty  mountain  ranges,  vast  chasms,  and  deep  and  rapid 
rivers,  and  a  perpetual  battle  from  the  commencement  to  the 
end  of  it,  though  few  Spaniards  lost  their  lives  in  actual 
combat.  It  was  substantially  over  the  same  route  that  Scott 
followed  three  hundred  years  later ;  and  in  some  respects  the 
two  marches  were  very  much  alike,  though  the  latter  was 
probably  the  more  difficult. 

Cortez  was  marching  into  an  unknown  and  mysterious 
region,  had  to  make  his  own  roads,  and  provide  his  troops 
with  food,  without  being  able  to  see  any  end  or  conclusion  of 
his  expedition ;  but  save  the  fatigue  of  killing  the  enemy  in  his 
front  and  all  about  him,  there  was  no  danger  from  the  ai-ma 
of  that  enemy. 


SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  15 

Even  his  repulse  and  retreat  after  entering  Mexico  with  all 
the  horrors  of  the  famous  noeha  trista,  was  the  result  of 
mere  overwhelming  numbers  forcing  them  back  by  sheer 
physical  force,  and  without  any,  or  at  all  events,  with  slight 
loss  of  life.  The  simple  unarmed  natives — for  their  arms  were 
utterly  useless  when  confronted  with  these  mailed  Spaniards — 
could  do  but  little  even  in  checking  the  march  of  Cortez ;  and 
the  fatigue  and  want  of  food,  and  the  uncertainties  always  be- 
fore them,  rendered  that  march  painful  and  difficult,  and  called 
out  all  the  high  capabilities  of  courage  and  endurance  which, 
in  those  times,  so  eminently  distinguished  the  Spanish  people. 
Spain  was  then  at  the  head  of  European  civilization — the 
greatest  power  of  the  day,  and  though  largely  mixed  with  the 
Goths,  probably,  was  more  legitimately  the  descendants  of  the 
Romans  than  any  other  European  people. 

There  never  has  been  since  such  a  grand  manifestation  of 
what  our  race  is  capable  of,  as  that  displayed  by  republican 
Rome. 

There  were,  it  is  true,  many  repulsive  features  in  the  Roman 
civilization — many  things  that  are  even  abhorrent  to  Christian 
minds ;  but  with  all  their  defects  there  was  a  grandeur  of 
soul,  and  a  development  of  individual  manhood,  that  has  never 
been  excelled  since. 

The  Spaniards  of  the  fifteenth  century  retained  more  of  the 
high  qualities  of  these  grand  old  Romans  than  any  other 
people  of  their  time;  and  Cortez,  and  Pizarro,  and  Ponce 
de  Leon,  and  other  conquerors  of  the  new  world  often  ap- 
proximated  to  the  Roman  standard. 

Nevertheless,  the  conquest  of  Mexico  by  Scott  was  a  more 
difficult  undertaking  than  that  of  Cortez ;  and  if  we  could 
separate  or  leave  out  the  mystery — the  uncertainty — in  a  word 
the  unknown,  and  compare  the  actual  alone,  all  would,  no 
doubt,  assent  to  this  opinion. 


16  SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY. 

Scott  had  to  deal  with  the  same  people  trained  in  the  chan- 
nels of  European  civilization,  and  led  and  officered  by  white 
men,  or  by  those  of  predominating  white  blood,  almost  without 
exception. 

The  rank  and  file  were  Indians,  but  the  officers  were  mainly 
white  men ;  and  among  them  Santa  Anna,  Arista  Diaz,  and  all 
the  leading  chiefs  opposed  to  Scott,  were  not  only  typical 
Caucasians,  but  thoroughly  educated  and  accomplished 
soldiers,  differing  in  no  respect  whatever  from  those  of 
France,  England,  or  the  United  States.  fThey  had,  moreover, 
all  the  perfect  appliances  of  modern  warfare ;  all  the  fortifica- 
tions, castles,  and  strong  defences  erected  by  their  former 
Spanish  masters ;  and  in  the  face  of  all  this,  Scott  cut  his  way 
to  the  capital,  and  with  only  ten  thousand  men  entered  the 
valley  of  Mexico,  in  less  than  half  of  the  time  consumed  by 
Cortez  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

No  European  power  could  have  done  this — no  people  but 
Americans  could  have  accomplished  the  work  of  Scott  and  his 
army  within  that  period,  and  with  such  means  at  their  dis- 
posal ;  the  proof  of  which  the  world  has  since  seen  in  the  re- 
cent invasion  of  the  French — the  bravest  and  most  warlike 
nation  in  Europe. 

The  cause  of  this  American  superiority  is  obvious.  It  was 
that  high  sense  of  manhood  that  springs  from  juxtaposition 
with  subordinate  races,  and  impels  them  to  look  with  disdain 
on  the  latter  when  confronted  in  battle.p 

The  European,  dwarfed  and  degraded  by  factitious  and 
unnatural  distinctions  of  class,  loses  half  of  his  native  manhood, 
and,  perpetually  reminded  of  his  inferiority  to  others,  or  some 
others,  is  incapable  of  that  glorious  sentiment  of  democracy, 
which,  while  it  recognizes  equals,  it  can  not  even  form  a  concep- 
tion of  any  thing,  save  the  Almighty  Creator,  superior  to 
itself. 


IPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  17 

This  was  the  spirit  that  marched  and  conquered  with  Scott 
in  Mexico ;  for  though  the  rank  and  file  of  the  old  army  were 
in  no  respect  superior  to  the  rank  and  file  of  European 
armies,  it  was  the  American  esprit  de  corps,  or  the  so-ealled 
slaveholding  spirit  of  the  officers,  that  gave  impulse  and 
character  to  the  Mexican  war,  and  rendered  that  army  so 
grand  and  irresistible. 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  ? 

Here  they  were  confronted,  not  by  negroes  it  is  true,  but 
by  a  race  of  men  closely  approximating  to  our  own  subor- 
dinate race,  and  to  retreat  or  fall  back,  or  under  any  circum- 
stances to  permit  the  inferior  Mexicans  to  challenge  them,  or 
indeed  to   resist  or  obstruct  their  path,  could  not  be  toler- 
ated for  a  moment.  J- — „, 
(The  European,  ignorant  of  race,  and  degraded  by  caste,  would 
fancy  that  these  black,  yellow,  or  brown  men  were  thus  different 
from  themselves,  from  the  same  causes  that  rendered  them 
inferior  to  other  classes ;  but  the  American,  with  the  instinct    / 
of  race  to  guide  him,  with  the  natural  sense  of  auperiority  / 
over   these  Indians,   negroes,   or  hybrids,   was  impelled  by  I 
nature  herself  to  assert  his  supremacy,  and  drive  them  from  I 
his  path. 

Cortez  and  his  companions  had  more  of  the  ancient  spirit 
of  Roman  democracy  in  them  than  any  other  Europeans  of 
that  day,  and  it  is  probable  that  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  or 
Germans  would  have  been  incapable  of  that  conquest  of 
Mexico ;  but  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  no  Europeans 
could  have  done  what  Scott  and  his  army  accomplished,  in 
our  own  times,  in  Mexico.  It  was  the  first  instance  in  our 
history  when  the  full  esprit  de  corps — the  complete  develop 
ment  of  American  democracy — was  manifested ;  that  grand 
sense  of  American  manhood,  which,  springing  from  the  instincts 
of  superiority,  tolerates  nothing  superior  to  itself  save  Heaven 


18  SPANISH      CONQUEST       AND    POLICY. 

alone,  and  which,  however  maimed  or  disabled  at  this  moment, 
must  rule  the  continent. 

After  the  capture  of  Mexico,  and  the  death  of  the  supposed 
Montezuma,  numerous  other  expeditions  were  fitted  out,  and 
gradually  the  whole  country,  from  Florida  to  Brazil,  brought 
under  the  Spanish  dominion.  There  was  a  great  amount  of 
romance  and  adventure  in  these  conquests ;  a  great  extent  of 
suffering,  trial,  and  exposure,  endured  by  the  conquerors  as 
well  as  the  conquered.  When  they  had  succeeded,  as  did 
Pizarro  in  Peru,  and  Vasco  de  Nunez  in  Central  America, 
they  quarreled  with  each  other,  plotted,  intrigued  and  assassi- 
nated their  chiefs,  or  revolted  against  them,  and  seized  the 
supreme  power.  The  earlier  conquests,  like  those  of  Pizarro, 
were  simple  enough,  though  they  endured  great  hardships  from 
the  long  and  dreary  marches  and  want  of  food. 

The  natives  could  make  no  resistance  against  forces  so 
terribly  armed  and  secured  in  armor,  and  save  in  those  cases 
where  sheer  numbers  overwhelmed,  and,  as  it  were,  overlaid 
the  Spaniards,  they  fell  an  easy,  almost  unresisting  conquest 
to  the  adventurers.  But  after  a  while,  they  learned  the  use  of 
arms,  and  in  some  instances  it  required  many  years  and  im- 
mense efforts  to  subdue  some  of  the  mountain  tribes  ;  indeed 
there  are  some  tribes  or  nations  still  unsubdued  to  this  day. 

The  general  ignorance  of  the  extent  and  character  of  the 
countries  conquered  was  such,  that,  though  it  was  almost  in 
their  neighborhood,  many  years  elapsed  before  they  discovered 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

BHboa,  who  has  the  credit  of  this  discovery,  well  illustrates 
the  Spanish  character  of  that  day. 

He  is  said  to  have  equipped  himself  in  full  armor,  and, 
riding  his  horse  into  the  waves  as  far  as  possible,  drew  his 
sword,  and,  with  a  grand  flourish,  took  possession  of  the  sea  in 
the  name  of  the  King  of  Spain,  and  challenged  the  world  ther 


SPANISH      CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  19 

and  there  to  dispute  it  if  they  dared.  It  was  equally  charac- 
teristic of  the  English  of  that  day,  when  Blake,  Elizabeth's 
great  admiral,  fell  on  his  knees,  and  gave  thanks  to  God  for 
this  grand  discovery  of  a  new  ocean  as  well  as  a  new 
continent. 

What  were  the  numbers  of  the  native  population,  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  it  is  difficult  to  determine  or 
even  to  conjecture. 

It  has  been  represented  by  English  writers,  and  indeed  by 
the  Spaniards  themselves,  that  the  population  was  almost 
countless,  and  that  millions  of  them  perished  in  a  vain  resist- 
ance against  the  conquerors.     But  this  is  altogether  incredible. 

Their  original  resistance  was  very  feeble,  and  as  there  could 
be  no  motive  for  a  wanton  slaughter  of  these  feeble  and  inno- 
cent people,  it  is  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  such  occurred 
to  any  considerable  extent. 

The  probabilities  are  therefore,  that  there  has  been  but  little 
change  in  this  respect,  and  that  the  native  population  is  now 
quite  as  large  as  it  ever  was,  or  at  all  events,  there  was  but 
slight  destruction  of  the  natives  within  the  Spanish  conquest. 
The  case  is  entirely  different  in  the  northern,  or  British  colo- 
nies, where  radically  different  circumstances  have  rapidly 
destroyed  the  natives;  and  which,  if  not  changed,  must  finally 
annihilate  them  altogether.  But  within  the  Spanish  line  ot 
conquests  there  probably  has  been  but  little  change  in  this 
respect,  save  in  the  islands,  where  the  introduction  of  the 
negro,  far  more  than  the  burthens  imposed  on  them  by  the 
Spaniards,  destroyed  the  natives.  There  is  absolutely  no 
reliable  data  on  the  subject ;  and  as  the  conquest  was  easily 
and  rapidly  effected,  and  there  could  be  no  motive  or  interest 
whatever  in  wanton  slaughter,  it  is  most  likely  that  the  native 
element,  with  all  the  drawbacks  of  amalgamation,  is  larger  now 
than  ever  before. 


20  SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND    POLICY. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  why,  when  Asia  had  three  hundred 
millions  of  Mongols,  and  even  Africa,  with  all  its  burthens  of 
amalgamation,  and  losses  by  deportation,  has  sixty  millions  of 
negroes,  this  continent  should  have  only  fifteen  or  twenty 
millions  of  people.  This  may  not  be  answered.  The  starting- 
point  of  the  human  creation  can  never  be  known  to  mortals ; 
for,  if  so,  they  would  be  just  what  the  devil  promised  Eve,  and 
as  wise  as  the  Almighty  Creator  himself.  We  know,  and  are 
only  permitted  to  know,  our  own  nature  and  wants,  and  our 
specific  relations  to  the  lower  races ;  and  we  should  reverently 
accept  the  work  of  God  as  it  is,  and  adapt  our  institutions 
to  it  without  any  vain  and,  indeed,  impious  effort  to  compre- 
hend the  secret  counsels  of  Omnipotence.  Nor  should  we 
wonder  at  the  long  delay,  the  innumerable  ages,  this  conti- 
nent was  undiscovered,  and  the  comparative  waste  or  loss 
of  its  mighty  products,  so  essential  to  human  welfare,  the 
uses  of  which  have  so  vitally  affected  modern  civilization  ;  for, 
after  all,  these  things  are  but  trifles  in  the  grand  drama  of 
human  destiny ;  and  thousands  or  millions  of  years  are  as  but  a 
day  or  moment  to  the  Almighty  Maker  and  Ruler  of  the 
Universe.  But  while  the  mere  physical  conquest  of  the 
Spanish  adventurers  was  rapidly  and  easily  effeoed,  the 
moral  conquest  was  vastly  more  difficult ;  and  just  here  is  the 
radical  difference  between  the  Spanish  Dominion  and  that  of 
the  English  adventurers  in  North  America. 

To  this  day  we  have  made  no  moral  conquest  of  the  native 
tribes,  and  therefore  have  simply  destroyed  them  ;  while 
Spain  not  only  conquered  the  natives,  but  vastly  benefited 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  rendered  them  an  essential  ele- 
ment in  the  civilization  of  the  continent. 

It  was  the  Church  that  truly  conquered  the  natives  of  Spanish 
America,  and  without  which  all  that  Cortez,  Tizarro,  and  their 


SPANISH      CONQUEST      AND      POLICY.  21 

companions  did,  would  have  been  totally  fruitless  in  the  settle- 
ment and  civilization  of  these  vast  regions. 

It  is  not  proposed  to  discuss  the  relative  merits  of  Catholi- 
cism and  Protestantism.  Perhaps  the  latter  is  vastly  better 
adapted  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  our  own  race;  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  former  can  alone  deal  successfully  with  the 
subordinate  races  of  mankind.  It  is  not  necessary  to  lug  in 
the  silly  and  hypocritical  assertion,  that  "  all  men  are  of  one 
blood,"  to  render  Christianity  available  with  the  lower  races 
of  mankind.  Weak  women  and  little  children  often  become 
the  noblest  exemplars  of  Christian  doctrine ;  and  so  with  Mon- 
gols, Indians,  negroes,  etc. — When  applied  to  them  as  such, 
Mongols,  Indians,  and  negroes,  become  truly  Christian  and 
useful  and  happy  beings. 

This  is  what  the  Catholic  Church  did:  she  applied  her 
church  discipline  to  the  actual  nature  and  real  wants  of  these 
subordinate  creatures,  and  was  thus  successful  in  civilizing  a 
continent.  Her  priests  marched  with  the  conquerors,  and  as 
soon  as  the  physical  defeat  took  place,  they  took  moral  charge 
of  the  defeated.  For  them  they  braved,  indeed  sought, 
martyrdom ;  and  they  who  found  it  were  regarded  as  the 
favored  of  heaven. 

Strange  paradox  !  At  the  very  moment,  unless  all  modern 
history  is  at  fault,  the  Church  in  the  old  world  was  at  the  very 
acme  of  corruption  and  rottenness,  her  priests  in  the  new 
world  were  the  most  pure,  devoted,  and  perfect  ever  known 
in  her  history.  Indeed,  there  is  no  parallel  in  the  history  of 
Christianity ;  no  such  body  of  earnest,  pure,  and  devoted  men 
was  ever  seen  before,  as  that  body  of  churchmen  who  followed 
the  Spanish  adventurers  to  America. 

This  earnest  and  single-minded  devotion  made  a  profound 
impression  on  the  native  mind;  an  impression  that  has  brought 
the  native  within  the  circle  of  modern  civilization,  and  that  has 


22  SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY. 

been,  ever   since   the  conquest,  the  mnin,  if  not  sole  moral 
influence  over  the  native  masses. 

Spain,  soon  after  the  success  of  the  adventurers,  sent  over 
her  viceroys,  and  the  grand  work  of  christianizing  the  natives, 
and  civilizing  a  continent,  began.  The  natives,  as  fast  as  con- 
quered, were  parceled  out  among  the  conquerors,  Avith  the 
lands  they  occupied. 

The  Spanish  soldiers  that  followed  Cortez,  Pizarro,  and 
other  chiefs,  were,  even  in  the  rank  and  file,  gentlemen  ;  that  is, 
were  rarely  of  the  peasant  or  working  class ;  and  however 
deficient  in  what  in  these  times  is  called  education,  they  were 
all  regarded  as  equals;  and  in  the  distribution  of  the  conquered 
natives,  the  sole  difference  that  was  recognized,  was  "  military 
service"  in  the  conquest.  The  lands  were  distributed  in  much 
the  same  way,  and  some  of  the  most  distinguished  chiefs  had 
whole  provinces  conferred  on  them,  as  well  as  many  thousand 
natives.  But  there  was  great  difficulty ;  the  mere  physical 
conquest,  though  seemingly  complete,  was  soon  found  to  be 
precarious,  and  not  unfrequently  dangerous  to  the  conquerors. 
The  rude  and  ferocious  soldier,  governing  his  work-animals  by 
force,  by  the  lash,  by  bloodhounds,  and  all  the  physical  appli- 
ances of  brute  machinery,  failed  to  render  them  profitable,  even 
where  they  were  not  dangerous. 

(The  negro  alone,  of  all  the  human  races,  can  be  thus  gov- 
erned. He  is  so  vastly  inferior  to  the  white  man — such  an 
absolute  mental  and  moral  blank — in  a  word,  is  so  entirely 
a  child  race,  that  he  never  resists — indeed,  so  naturally  and 
instinctively  seeks  the  rule  of  the  master-race,  that  force  is 
quite  unnecesary.  But  the  beneficent  Creator  has  so  adapted 
this  weak  and  helpless  negro,  that  his  very  weakness  is  a  pro- 
tection and  security  against  the  avarice  of  his  master,  who  soon 
understood  that  no  extent  of  lash,  of  brutality,  or  cruelty,  can 
get  any  more  work  out  of  him  than  is  legitimate  and  proper. 


S\ 


SPANISH     CONQUEST    AND    POLICY.  28 

There  is  a  passive,  stolid,  unexpressed  resistance  in  the  negro 
organism,  which  every  planter  and  overseer  understand,  that 
resists  all  efforts  to  overwork  him,  and  saves  him  from  that 
pitiful  stiffness  of  joint  and  muscle  which  excessive  toil  has  so 
stamped  on  the  working  classes  of  our  own  kind  in  the  old 
world.  But  unlike  the  negro,  the  native  has  a  certain  charac- 
ter to  be  understood  and  overawed, — a  specific  nature,  capable 
of  a  certain  development,  as  explained  elsewhere,  and  which 
enabled  the  Aztecs  and  other  tribes  in  the  centre  of  this  conti- 
nent to  reach  the  condition  in  which  they  were  found  by  the 
Spaniards  A 

This  specific  character  the  mere  physical  conquest  could 
not  reach.  They  might  exterminate  them,  as  did  the  English 
adventurers  in  the  North ;  but  they  needed  their  labor,  and 
could  not  afford  the  luxury  of  extermination.  But  the  Church 
interposed,  and  performed  this  conquest  over  the  natives, — a 
conquest  that  all  the  mighty  power  of  Spain,  and  all  Europe  to 
back  her,  would  have  been  unable  to  accomplish  otherwise. 
As  has  been  said,  the  priest  marched  with  the  soldier, — indeed, 
not  unfrequently  outstripped  him, — and  sought  martyrdom 
among  the  fiercer  tribes ;  and  from  the  beginning  he  was  as 
universally  regarded  as  the  protector,  as  the  soldier  was  the 
oppressor,  of  these  people.  This  profound  impression  on  the 
native  mind  enabled  the  Church  not  only  to  civilize  them,  but 
to  harmonize  the  natives  with  their  masters,  and  to  organize 
society  on  a  basis  that,  with  all  the  changes,  mutations,  and 
horrors,  since  enacted  in  Spanish  America,  to  a  certain  extent 
exists  still. 

A  Spaniard  owned  all  the  land  for  fifty  miles,  perhaps,  with 
twenty  to  fifty  thousand  natives  subject  to  him,  or  that  were 
assigned  to  him  by  the  viceroy.  He  built  a  grand  house 
or  hacienda,  surrounded  by  a  strong  wall  twenty  feet  hign, 
within  which  were  his  horses,  all  his  immediate  valuables,  and 


24  SPANISH     CONQUEST    AND     POLICY. 

his  guards — usually  vicious  and  worthless  Spaniards,  but  more 
often  hybrids  or  mongrels.  The  Indians,  collected  in  villages, 
were  close  by ;  though,  when  the  populations  were  sparse, 
sometimes  these  villages  were  totally  unknown,  save  by  the 
priest  and  the  alcalde  selected  by  the  master. 

It  was  at  a  time  when  religious  belief  was  deep  and  sincere, 
— indeed  when  the  Pope  himself  was  even  more  anxious  to 
christianize,  than  the  Spanish  princes  were  to  conquer,  the  new 
world.  Churches  were  erected,  the  people  baptized,  sometimes 
in  thousands ;  and  with  all  their  lust  of  gold,  and  stern  hardness 
of  character,  the  early  Spanish  adventurers  were  themselves 
profoundly  religious.  The  nature  or  discipline  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  capable  of  such  elasticity  as  to  include,  or  permit  of 
its  adaptation  to,  every  form  or  condition  of  human  existence, 
was  just  what  seems  needed  to  the  moral  conquest  of  the  lower 
races  of  mankind ;  and  it  did  a  missionary  work  iu  America 
that  not  only  has  no  parallel  in  Protestant  history,  but  that,  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  is  forever  impossible  to  the  latter. 
How  far  this  might  be  carried  without  the  prior  physical  con- 
quest as  a  preparation,  there  are  no  means  of  knowing;  but  in 
this  instance,  and  acting  in  concert  with  the  Spanish  civil  au- 
thorities, the  Catholic  Church  was  truly  the  civilizer  of  a  new 
world,  and  rendered  millions  of  otherwise  useless  and  wander- 
ing barbarians  useful  and  happy  members  of  Christian  and 
civilized  society. 

There  was  no  effort  to  open  schools,  and  "  educate"  them 
into  something  else  than  that  which  God  made  them,  to  force 
them  to  manifest  the  faculties,  or  fill  the  role  of  white  men ; 
but,  as  even  New  England  does  with  women  and  children,  the 
Church  accepted  them  as  they  were,  in  fact, — a  different  and 
subordinate  species  of  human  kind,  and  treated  them  accord- 
ingly. Of  course  the  priests,  in  dealing  with  these  subordinate 
people,  did  not  depart  in  theory  from  the  absurd  dogma  of 


SPANISH    CONQUEST    AND     POLICY.  25 

"one  blood,"  or  a  single  race,  so  universal  with  Europeans; 
nor  did  they,  in  theory  or  formally,  abandon  any  of  the  orthodox 
dogmas  of  the  Church  itself;  but,  in  their  practical  treatment 
of  the  natives,  they  were  in  entire  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
nature,  and  regarded  them  as  they  were,  and  are,  and  must 
be  forever,  short  of  a  new  creation, — a  distinctly  different  and 
subordinate  species  of  men.  Hence  was  their  success ;  and,  as 
observed,  they  did  what  the  whole  power  of  Spain,  and  all 
Europe  besides,  was  unable  to  do  :  they  effected  a  moral  con- 
quest of  the  natives,  and  civilized  many  millions  of  people. 
Churches  and  convents  were  erected  all  over  the  land,  from 
Florida  to  Brazil,  and  school-houses,  too,  as  far  as  was  needed 
or  useful. 

The  conflicts  between  the  Spanish  adventurer,  and  the  na- 
tives assigned  to  him  by  the  Spanish  government  or  viceroy, 
were  harmonized  and  settled  by  the  Church,  which  always,  and 
under  all  circumstances,  was  regarded  by  all  parties  as  the 
protector  of  the  natives. 

The  system,  if  system  it  may  be  called,  which  regulated  the 
relations  of  the  land  proprietor  with  the  conquered  natives 
assigned  him,  is  almost  indescribable,  indeed  differed  in  many 
respects  in  the  districts  of  the  several  captain-generalships  that 
the  vast  regions  of  the  Spanish  dominions  were  divided  into. 
There  was  little,  if  any,  resemblance  to  what,  by  an  absurd 
misnomer,  is  called  slavery  in  our  own  Southern  States. 

Indians  are  specifically  different  from  negroes ;  the  whole  Mex- 
ican, Central  and  South  American  region  is  radically  different 
from  ours ;  and  beyond  these  natural  differences,  there  are  the 
artificial  differences  of  Spanish  and  English,  and  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  which,  in  the  tout  ensemble,  of  course  renders 
comparison  impossible.  The  vast  regions  south  of  our  own 
consist  of  alternate  mountain  ranges  with  no  capacity  of  culti- 
vation, and  valleys  overflowing  with  vegetation;  so  that  small 


26  SPANISH     CONQUEST   AND     POLICY. 

plantations,  or  any  thing  approaching  even  to  an  agricultural 
life,  like  ours,  seems  out  of  the  question. 

The  lands,  therefore,  were  given  to  comparatively  few;  and 
though  a  considerable  number  of  Spanish  emigrants  came  from 
Spain,  they  confined  themselves  to  the  towns,  and  rarely  had 
any  connection  with  agriculture.  This  was  carried  on  by  the 
great  proprietors,  or  their  managers,  and  the  Indian  laborers ; 
but  the  moral  force  of  the  Church  was  the  essential  agency, 
both  in  preparing  the  natives,  in  the  first  instance,  for  the  uses 
of  civilization,  and  in  preserving  peace  and  harmony,  at  all 
times  between  the  proprietor  and  his  people. 
(The  negro,  the  natural,  typical,  uncorrupted  negro,  never 
resists  the  white  man,  for  he  is  a  blank,  a  child,  a  creature 
that  has  nothing  to  overcome;  and  therefore,  the  very  day  he 
arrives  from  Africa,  he  goes  to  work  under  the  overseer  as  if 
he  had  been  thus  engaged  all  his  life.  But  even  this  simple, 
innocent,  and  easily  ruled  creature  has  a  certain  moral  *ense, 
that,  when  cultivated  and  appealed  to,  renders  him  far  more 
useful  and  available  as  an  element  of  our  modern  civilization. 
And  this  want  was  met  by  the  planter's  family,  who,  without 
even  being  pious  in  the  ordinary  sense,  still  had  a  certain  in- 
terest and  a  certain  moral  responsibility  in  regard  to  their 
negro  people  or  so-called  slaves.  The  negro  minister  on  a 
plahtation  was  almost  always  worse  than  his  people;  but  the 
plantation  that  was  under  the  charge  of  a  white  clergyman,  or 
some  ordinary  pious  family,  was  always  the  best  regulated, 
and  the  people  the  most  usefulA 

This  was  strikingly  presented  by  the  late  eminent  and 
lamented  Dr.  Cartwright,  who,  a  large  sugar  grower  himself, 
instituted  inquiries  on  the  subject,  and  found  that,  though 
Louisiana  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  sugar  region,  and  Cuba 
was — nevertheless,  the  labor  of  two  negroes  in  the  former  was 
equal  to  that  of  three  negroes  in  the  latter.     This  was  because 


SPANISH      CONQUEST      AND     POLICY.  27 

of  the  moral  influence  of  the  planter's  family,  who  often,  per- 
haps generally,  regarded  the  negro  as  humble  and  dependent 
members  of  such  family  ;  at  all  events,  there  was  always,  even 
with  the  worst  masters,  a  certain  recognition  of  a  moral  sense 
in  his  negro  people ;  while  in  Jamaica,  Cuba,  all  the  West 
India  Islands,  where  they  depended  on  the  "  slave  trade"  in- 
stead of  natural  increase,  the  negro  was  regarded  in  the  light 
of  a  mere  work  animal,  and  in  most  cases,  the  moral  element 
in  these  people  was  disregarded  altogether. 

The  Church  in  Spanish  America  filled  this  want,  or  appealed 
to  the  moral  element  in  the  native,  and  thus  civilized  them  and 
rendered  them  available  as  laborers  to  the  great  proprietors. 
Protestanism  could  not  do  this  ;  for  though  William  Penn,  the 
Moravians,  and  a  few  other  isolated  cases  may  be  presented, 
the  effort  to  civilize  the  Indians,  since  the  landing  at  Ply- 
mouth and  Jamestown,  is  an  admitted  failure.  The  Spanish 
conquest  would  have  proven  equally  futile  without  the  aid  of 
the  Church  ;  they  would  have  conquered  and  exterminated — 
that  is  all — just  as  have  the  Protestants  of  the  North. 

No  doubt  there  are  very  sincere  Protestant  missionaries ; 
but,  whether  in  our  own  Western  territories,  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  the  East  Indies,  or  Africa,  the  result  is  the  same ;  and 
the  sole  instances  where  they  are  most  successful,  as  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  they  are  the  most  fatal  to  the  native;  for 
just  there  they  most  rapidly  reform  them  off  the  face  of  the 
earth. 

But  what  then  ?  Does  it  follow  that  Protestantism  is  wrong 
or  incapable  of  doing  good  to  the  lower  races  ?  No,  indeed  : 
.t  only  shows  that  its  missionaries  wholly  mistake  the  nature 
of  their  converts — just  as  those  parents,  whose  vanity  prompts 
them  to  have  smart  children,  teach  them  often  to  study  mathe- 
matics, and  stunt  their  growth,  if  not  destroy  their  lives.  A 
missionary   begins    with    a   school — of   all    things   the   most 


28  SPANISH     CONQUEST      AND     POLICY. 

baneful,  and  then  demands  that  his  victim  shall  expand  intc 
his  own  intellectual  standard — a  thing  just  as  absolutely  absurd 
as  if  he  demanded  that  the  negro  color,  or  hair,  or  any  other 
physical  quality,  should  be  like  his  own. 

The  sole  instance  where  Protestantism  has  succeeded  is  the 
Protestant  master  of  the  South,  who,  setting  the  negro  a  good 
example,  all  those  imitative  powers  that  God  has  endowed 
him  with  are  fully  developed,  and  all  that  the  moral  nature 
of  the  negro  permits  has  a  healthy  development.  But,  save  in 
this  case,  where  the  family,  rather  than  the  minister,  has  made 
Christian  and  useful  beings  out  of  African  savages,  the 
civilization  of  the  lower  races  by  Protestantism  has  been  aD 
utter  failure,  and  will  probably  remain  so  forever. 

Its  very  excellences,  its  high  standard,  its  intellectual  as 
well  as  moral  demands,  render  it  not  only  useless  but  fatal  to 
these  subordinate  people ;  and  it  may  be  doubted,  as  regards 
our  Indians  in  the  West,  which  was  the  most  fatal,  rum  or  the 
missionary — the  Indian  trader,  who  rapidly  destroys  them  by 
his  "  trade,"  or  the  missionary,  who  kills  them  with  his  Bibles 
and  schools. 

Forty  years  ago  it  was  found  that  the  people  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  would  be  demoralized  by  whalers  and  other  sea- 
going adventurers  ;  but  if  they  had  been  left  to  confront  this 
danger,  and  no  missionary  had  ever  visited  these  islands,  it  is 
certain  the  population  would  be  vastly  larger  than  it  is  now. 
Life  itself  is  the  greatest  blessing  that  God  has  given  His 
creatures,  for  it  includes  all  others ;  and  therefore,  when — as  in 
the  case  of  the  natives  of  this  continent,  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
etc. — it  is  seen  that  they  are  perishing  from  the  earth,  surely, 
thoughtful  and  honest  men  will  halt  and  examine  into  the 
causes  of  such  fatality. 

The  Catholic  missionaries,  even  if  no  more  earnest  or  de 
voted  men   than  their  Protestant  rivals,  were  able  to  adapt 


SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  20 

their  religious  machinery  to  the  nature  and  moral  wants  of  the 
native;  and  their  success  is  in  many  respects  the  most  wonder- 
ful page  in  all  history. 

They  christianized  and  civilized  the  new  world — for  in  truth 
all  that  Protestantism  has  done  in  this  respect  is  a  blank, 
there  being  no  single  instance  on  record  where  the  Protestant 
missionaries  have  preserved  the  natives  after  converting  them. 
It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  get  at  even  approximating  facts ; 
but  it  is  reasonable  to  say,  that,  after  the  conquest  and  civili- 
zation of  the  natives,  they  increased  more  rapidly  wTithin  the 
Spanish  dominion  than  they  did  before  the  Spanish  advent. 
The  early  European  writers  represent  that  millions  of  these 
people  were  slain  by  the  invaders ;  but  indeed,  very  few 
perished ;  and  after  the  Church  interfered  and  civilized  them, 
there  was  profound  peace  and  harmony  everywhere  between 
the  conquerors  and  the  conquered. 

As  soon  as  this  first  great  work  was  done,  the  Spanish  ad- 
venturers went  to  work  opening  mines,  plantations,  making 
roads,  and  building  cities ;  works  that  even  in  the  present 
dilapidated  condition  of  things  excites  our  wonder  and  even 
our  awe  at  their  extent  and  grandeur.  Churches  and  con- 
vents were  erected  everywhere,  and  the  natives,  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  priests  were  their  true 
friends  and  powerful  protectors,  became  peaceable  and  useful 
laborers  everywhere  within  the  Spanish  dominion. 

Agriculture  was  never  developed  in  any  kind  of  proportion 
to  the  actual  capabilities  of  these  countries  ;  but  the  native  was 
as  yet  the  sole  laborer. 

The  early  Spanish  conquerors  differed  radically  from  those 
of  England  in  the  North,  or  even  the  French  in  Canada;  and 
instead  of  any  feeling  of  disaffection  to  the  mother  country,  or 
any  demand  for  religious  liberty,  they  were  the  most  favored 


80  SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY. 

and  most  loyal,  and  perhaps  even  the  most  religious  or  most 
catholic  portion  of  their  countrymen. 

They  were  simply  enterprising  adventurers,  who,  having 
first  discovered  a  new  world,  thought  themselves  its  fitting 
rulers ;  and,  save  the  lust  of  gold  which  impelled  them  into 
crimes  at  times,  they  were  as  earnest  to  exalt  the  king  by  new 
possessions,  and  their  Church  by  christianizing  the  natives,  as 
they  were  intent  upon  improving  their  own  individual  for- 
tunes. But  as  time  advanced,  and  a  considerable  white  and 
mixed  creole  population  grew  up,  Spain  became  jealous  of  her 
own  offspring,  just  as  did  England  in  the  North ;  but,  indeed, 
the  latter  had  good  cause  of  this  kind  from  the  first,  as  her 
expatriated  children  had  been  disowned  and,  to  a  certain 
extent,  driven  from  the  family  fireside.  But  the  early  Spanish 
emigrants  were  the  darlings  of  the  nation;  and  the  new  lustre 
they  had  given  the  Spanish  crown  rendered  them  favorites 
among  all  classes  of  the  Spanish  people. 

Nevertheless,  a  time  came  when  the  mother  country  became 
jealous  of  the  mighty  power  growing  up  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere, — a  power  that  furnished  nearly  all  the  gold  and 
silver  of  Europe,  and  that  threatened,  sooner  or  later,  to  over- 
shadow the  very  people  it  had  sprung  from  ;  and,  curiously 
enough,  this  feeling  kept  equal  pace  with  the  decadence  of 
Spain  as  a  European  power. 

The  defeat  and  expulsion  of  the  Moors ;  the  marriage  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella ;  the  union  of  Castile  and  Aragon,  and 
the  wonderful  genius  of  the  great  Emperor,  Charles  V.,  and, 
above  all,  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  a  new  world,  ren- 
dered Spain,  on  the  accession  of  Philip  II.,  the  greatest  power 
in  Christendom.  And  apparently  it  remained  so  during  the 
reign  of  Philip;  but  setting  himself  up  as  the  champion  of  the 
Church,  and  more  intent  on  putting  down  Protestantism  than 
increasing  or  preserving  the  mighty  power   his  great  father 


SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  31 

had  left  him,   he,  in  fact,  squandered  the  latter  in  vain  though 
chivalrous  efforts  to  uphold  the  cause  of  the  Church. 

From  Philip's  death,  the  decay  of  the  Spanish  power  was 
rapid  and  continuous  ;  and,  as  observed,  in  precise  proportion 
as  Spain  declined,  and  the  Indies  increased  in  importance, 
was  the  jealousy  of  the  mother-country  increased  toward  her 
American  offspring. 

Laws  were  enacted,  or  rather  decrees  were  enforced,  that 
finally  reduced  her  American  children  to  complete  and  dis- 
graceful vassalage.  Captain-generals  were  sent  out  with  in- 
structions that  never  could  be  even  known  to  the  Americans, 
for  every  thing  was  in  secret.  All  the  Americans  were  per- 
mitted to  know  was,  that  they  were  absolute  rulers,  and  there 
could  be  no  appeal  against  their  rule,  however  cruel  or  in- 
human. 

Thus  the  very  descendants  of  those  who  had  conquered  a 
new  world,  and  given  Spain  a  prestige  and  power  unequaled 
in  Christendom,  were  denied  all  the  rights  which  in  Spain  were 
tolerated  in  the  lowest  and  most  dependent  classes. 

They  could  hold  no  position  under  the  local  government, 
no  matter  what  their  name,  wealth,  fortune,  or  fitness ;  and 
none  but  native  Spaniards  were  permitted  to  hold  any  office, 
however  humble. 

Most  of  the  Spanish  emigrants,  being  unmarried,  sought 
alliances  with  the  native  women,  and  there  soon  grew  up  large 
mongrel  populations;  but  still  a  very  considerable  Creole  popu 
lat ion  of  pure  Caucasians  existed  in  the  country.  The  white 
and  mixed  people,  save  the  few  great  landed  proprietors  and 
the  priests,  composed  the  city  populations ;  and  at  the  close  of 
the  last  century,  when  New  York  and  Boston  and  other  Atlantic 
cities  were  scarcely  more  than  what  we  would  now  call  villages, 
Mexico,  Panama,  Lima,  Puebla,  Vera  Cruz,  etc.,  were  great 
cities,  overflowing  with  wealth,  progress,  and  prosperity. 


82  SPANISH     CONQUEST    AND     POLICY. 

On  the  coast,  and  in  some  of  the  valleys  of  the  terra  tern- 
pk/da,  negroes  had  been  introduced,  and  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Vera  Cruz,  and  farther  down  the  coast,  extensive  sugar 
plantations  were  in  successful  operation ;  but  the  productive 
forces  of  Spanish  America  were  essentially  Indian.  There  were 
great  wrong  and  oppression  practiced  on  the  native  Creole 
population,  but  the  Indian  people  were  usually  treated  well 
by  the  captain-generals ;  and  back  of  them  stood  the  Church, 
the  al  ways-faith  fid  friend  and  potent  protector  of  the  Indian 
population.  The  hybrids  and  mixed  people  of  the  cities  were 
perhaps  watched  by  the  Spanish  officials  with  much  the  same 
jealous  apprehension  with  which  they  regarded  the  native 
white  people;  but  the  aboriginal  people — the  pure  Indians — 
were  generally  treated  humanely  by  all  classes  of  Spanish 
officials.  The  sole  antagonism  that  existed,  and  finally  that 
expanded  into  a  revolution,  was  that  between  the  Spaniards 
and  the  native  white  people.  But  this  was  so  closely  watched 
by  the  home  government,  that  there  was  no  outbreak,  nor, 
indeed,  interruption  to  the  general  prosperity,  until  Spain, 
invaded  by  Napoleon,  was  forced  to  fight  desperately  for  her 
own  independence,  when  the  native  white  people  saw  a  chance, 
as  they  believed,  to  cast  off  the  Spanish  dominion  forever. 

In  1808,  as  soon  as  they  heard  of  Napoleon's  occupation  of 
Madrid  with  a  French  army,  outbreaks  took  place  in  several 
of  the  captain-generalships,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
that  of  Morellos  in  Mexico.  These  were  put  down,  with  ter- 
rible cruelty,  by  the  Spaniards,  but  they  continued  to  resist, 
and,  when  driven  from  the  towns  and  plains,  the  patriots 
sought  shelter  in  the  mountains,  often  impassable  and  impreg- 
nable to  the  regular  Spanish  troops. 

The  Creole  white  population  had  most  cause  for  casting  off 
the  Spanish  dominion.  Indeed,  this  was  the  only  class  that  felt 
the  Spanish  rule  severely ;   but  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the 


SPANISH     CONQUEST     AND     POLICY.  33 

mixed  populations  would  respond  to  the  "sentiment  of  inde- 
pendence," which  finally  became  the  dominant  feeling  of  all 
classes.  There  was  really  no  cause  for  the  native  Indian  popu- 
lation to  get  rid  of  the  Spanish  power,  and  most  likely  it  was 
the  mere  impulsive  movement  of  the  more  energetic  and  intel- 
ligent white  and  mongrel  elements,  that  carried  it  onward  to 
the  final  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  dominion. 

When  this  movement  for  independence  began,  the  whole  of 
Spanish  America  was  peaceful  and  prosperous  ;  they  had  been 
much  troubled  by  English  privateers,  which,  from  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  and  Sir  John  Hawkins,  had  scourged  the  Spanish 
coast  towns,  and  slain  and  plundered  the  people;  but  otherwise, 
the  whole  of  Spanish  America  was  peaceful  and  prosperous 
after  the  first  conquest  down  to  the  beginning  of  this  century. 
And  while  the  English  colonists  were  engaged  in  desperate  wars, 
and  exterminating  the  native  Indian  people,  the  Spaniards, 
having  christianized  and  civilized,  as  well  as  conquered  them, 
were  at  peace ;  and  the  Indians,  instead  of  "  dying  out," 
were  constantly  increasing  in  most  of  the  countries  under  the 
dominion  of  the  Spanish  flag. 

There  are  no  reliable  data  in  existence ;  but,  under  all  the 
circumstances  that,  combined  together,  make  up  the  case,  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  native  Indian  population  was 
larger  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  than  at  the  time  of  the 
conquest ;  but  be  this  as  it  may,  the  whole  of  Spanish  America 
was  peaceful  and  orderly,  and  productive  and  prosperous,  when 
that  great  and  fatal  movement  came,  which  finally  ended  in 
independence,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Spanish-American 
republics  on  this  continent. 

This  new  regime  was  so  widely  different,  and  has  resulted  in 
such  fatal  consequences,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  deal  with  it 
in  a  separate  chapter,  and  altogether  from  another  stand-point 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS. 

As  stated  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  Spanish  America  was 
generally  prosperous  under  the  Spanish  dominion, — not  because 
monarchy  was  suited  to  their  people  or  any  other  people,  but 
because  the  subordinate  races, — the  Indians  and  negroes, — 
were  in  subordinate  social  conditions,  corresponding  to  their 
nature  and  wants.  Even  the  vast  mongrel  populations  of  the 
cities,  those  naturally  obstructive  and  abnormal  elements,  were 
restrained,  and  if  not  useful,  were  rendered  harmless.  The 
relations  of  the  landed  proprietor  to  his  peons,  or  Indian  sub- 
gens  was  peaceful,  if  not  very  kindly;  for  it  was  the  Church, 
or  the  village  priest,  that  appealed  to  the  moral  sense  of 
the  Indian,  rather  than  the  owner  of  the  land.  But,  sub- 
stantially, the  white  man  and  Indian  harmonized,  and  the 
Avhole  vast  region  was  in  perfect  peace  so  far  as  the  relations 
of  the  white  man  to  the  lower  races  were  concerned. 

But  there  had  long  burned  a  fierce  though  silent  hostility 
against  Spain,  in  the  hearts  of  the  white  Creole  population 
of  Spanish  America ;  completely  ignored  and  disfranchised  in 
their  own  native  land,  and  ruled  by  an  absolute  military 
despotism,  it  was  to  be  expected  that,  after  the  successful 
rebellion  of  the  Americans  of  the  North,  they  would  improve 
the  first  opportunity  that  offered  itself,  to  cast  off  the  Spanish 
dominion.  They  alone  felt  the  heavy  hand  of  that  despotism. 
The  Indian  and  the  negro  not  only  had  no  cause  whatever  for 
complaint  against  Spain,  but  were  almost  always  favored  by 


THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS.  35 

her  against  their  own  masters  ;  and,  moreover,  the  Chnrch  stood 
ready,  at  all  times,  to  protect  them,  not  only  against  their 
own  masters,  bnt,  if  need  were,  against  the  whole  power  of 
Spain.  But  the  sentiment  of  hostility  against  the  mother-coun- 
try, among  the  whites,  grew  into  a  great  and  overshadowing 
passion ;  and  when  the  time  came,  they  embarked  in  the  war 
of  independence  with  an  enthusiasm  perhaps  never  before 
equaled. 

At  this  time  there  must  have  been  some  two  millions  of 
people  with  predominating  white  blood,  perhaps  an  even  larger 
number  of  mongrels,  some  half-million  of  negroes,  and  the  rest 
Indian  ;  making  in  all  some  fifteen  millions  in  Spanish  America. 
The  increase  of  population  was  slow,  no  doubt.  Spanish  mi- 
gration was  limited  ;  the  mongrels  of  the  cities  were  relatively 
sterile,  but  it  is  probable  the  native  or  pure  Indian  population 
did  increase,  and  was  larger  at  the  time  of  the  revolution  than 
it  was  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest. 

The  passion  of  independence,  once  thoroughly  aroused, 
swept  away  every  thing — all  prudence,  forethought,  or  fear  of 
possible  consequences. 

As  we  have  recently  witnessed  in  some  of  our  own  sadly 
mistaken  countrymen,  independence  was  the  sole  passion  ;  and 
for  that  they  would  give,  not  only  their  money  and  their  blood, 
which  they  had  the  right  to  do,  but  they  also  did  that  which 
they  had  no  right  to  do — they  compromised  and  ruined  their 
children  and  their  posterity. 

They  sought  an  alliance  with  the  subordinate  races  against 
the  mother-country,  just  as  some  utterly  wild  people  in  the 
Confederate  States  proposed  to  arm  the  negroes,  and  even  to 
"  abolish  slavery,"  and  equalize  with  the  negroes,  to  secure 
independence  from  the  States  of  the  North. 

There  was  nothing  whatever  in  the  nature  of  the  Indian  to 
appeal  to. 


B6  THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS. 

He  was  generally  well  treated  by  the  Spanish  viceroys 
indeed,  the  Spanish  power  scarcely  touched  him  at  any  point. 
And  then  the  Church — the  sole  moral  power  that  ruled  him — ■ 
was  closely  associated  with  the  Spanish  dominion,  and  natu- 
rally shrank  from  disorder  and  revolution. 

The  mestizos,  on  the  contrary,  the  vast  lazaroni  of  the  cities, 
with  all  the  indolence,  and  vastly  more  of  the  vices  than  those 
of  Naples,  were  always  ready  to  be  used  by  those  who  could 
approach  them  best ;  indeed,  their  abnormal  and  disorganized 
bodily  structure  is  a  perfect  counterpart  of  their  moral  defor- 
mities ;  and  from  the  beginning,  though  their  chiefs  sold  them 
out  to  the  Spaniards  when  they  had  a  chance,  the  mixed  peo- 
ple were  generally  on  the  side  of  the  revolutionists. 

There  was  occasionally  a  priest,  like  Morellos  in  Mexico, 
who  had  vast  influence  over  the  Indians  of  the  vicinity,  that  led 
them  against  the  Spanish  power;  but  for  a  long  time,  both  the 
Church  and  the  native  Indian  population,  even  when  they  did 
not  actually  condemn  the  insurgents,  remained  neutral. 

The  movement,  as  observed,  in  its  origin  was  wholly  Cau- 
casian. The  white  Creole  population,  the  veritable  descendants 
of  the  great  discoverers  and  conquerors  of  a  new  world,  were 
slaves  and  strangers  in  their  own  native  land,  and  had  infinitely 
more  cause  for  throwing  off  the  Spanish  dominion  than  had 
our  own  ancestors  for  casting  off  that  of  Britain. 

But  they  were  unable  to  do  so,  and  first  calling  to  their  aid 
the  mestizos  or  mongrels  of  the  cities,  they  finally  engaged 
the  Indian  masses  of  the  rural  districts,  and,  after  a  long  and 
terrible  struggle,  succeeded  in  driving  the  Spanish  flag  from 
the  continent. 

There  was,  as  has  been  said,  nothing  that  they  could  appeal 
to  in  the  Indian. 

The  mongrels  of  the  cities  had  an  instinctive  tendency  to 
disorder  and  confusion,  and,  moreover,  oould  always  be  bought 


THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS  87 

up  with  money,  if  there  was  nothing  else  to  attract  them ;  but 
the  Indian,  docile,  industrious,  and  contented,  asking  only  for 
his  "  saints'  days"  and  religious  processions,  with  no  tradi- 
tions of  wrong  to  avenge,  and,  above  all,  with  his  always-reli- 
able protector,  the  priest,  loyal  to  the  Spanish  power,  it  was 
a  long  and  difficult  labor  to  enlist  these  stolid  and  patient 
people  in  the  cause  of  the  rebels. 

Even  the  promises  of  freedom  and  full  citizenship  with  the 
whites  had,  for  years,  but  little  influence  over  the  aboriginal 
people.  What  was  freedom  or  citizenship  to  them  ?  Like  our 
own  negroes,  of  course  they  could  form  no  conception  of  such 
things. 

The  actual  notion  of  the  native  intellect  would  be,  as  it  has 
been  with  our  negroes,  freedom  from  work  ;  but  even  this  was 
less  possible  than  in  the  case  of  the  negro.  The  nerves  of  the 
negro  are  large,  compared  with  his  brain;  or,  in  other  words, 
the  periphery  of  the  nervous  system  so  dominates  over  the 
centre,  that  indolence  is  a  positive  enjoyment  to  the  negro. 
Left  to  his  own  volition,  he  never  can  be  a  producer  or 
laborer  proper  ;  for  he  can  not  comprehend  its  benefits,  or  that 
present  self-denial  may  work  out  a  predominating  future  good. 
But  aside  from  this,  his  brain  is  so  sluggish,  his  whole  nervous 
organism  so  incomplete,  and  the  tendency  to  somnolency  so 
irresistible,  that  idleness  or  inaction  is,  to  the  negro  nature,  a 
positive  enjoyment. 

But  this  tendency  is  less  prominent  in  the  Indian,  and 
therefore  the  promise  of  freedom,  or  a  release  from  labor, 
failed  to  excite  and  bring  him  over  to  the  rebel  cause.  It 
was  only  years  after,  when  another  and  far  more  natural  and 
universal  passion  or  feeling  was  brought  into  action,  that 
the  native  Indian  populations  became  thoroughly  aroused,  and 
united  with  the  native  whites  against  the  Spaniards,  and  drove 
them  from  the  continent. 


88  THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS. 

The  protracted  horrors  of  the  civil  war,  and  the  terribla 
cruelty  practiced  by  the  Spaniards,  when  they  conquered  towns 
or  overran  certain  districts,  at  last  dragged  the  simple  and 
docile  Indians  into  the  conflict;  and  with  that  instinctive  ten- 
dency of  all  the  lower  races,  not  to  rebel  against,  but  to  exter- 
minate, those  who  rule  them,  the  Indians  were  finally  combined 
together  by  the  native  chiefs,  and  hurled,  almost  en  masse, 
against  the  Spanish  power. 

Like  the  negroes  in  San  Domingo,  and  the  Sepoys,  recently, 
in  India,  it  was  no  spirit  of  revolt  against  tyrannical  rulers,  but 
the  simple  blind  instinct  of  extermination  of  the  master-race, 
that  impelled  the  Indian  masses  of  this  continent ;  and  when 
the  white  Creoles  at  last  aroused  this  feeling,  the  cause  was 
won,  and  the  Spanish  dominion  at  an  end.  They  did  not  know 
it  themselves ;  such  men  as  Bolivar,  Morazan,  Bravo  Victoria, 
and  others,  were  quite  unconscious  of  the  power  they  had 
called  into  action — that  power  which  not  only  expelled  the 
Spanish  dominion,  but  that  has  rendered  all  regular  civil 
government  impracticable  since ;  a  power  we  have  just  seen 
displayed  in  Mexico  under  the  lead  of  Juarez,  and  that  will 
most  likely  continue  until  the  whites  are  extinct — the  power 
or  instinct  of  exterminating  a  superior  race  when  the  natural 
relations  are  perverted,  and  the  white  man  abdicates  his 
natural  duty  of  ruling,  guiding,  and  protecting  the  subordinate 
races. 

A  "slave"  insurrection  is  a  moral  impossibility;  but  a 
"free"  negro  or  Indian  insurrection,  is  a  necessary  conse- 
quence of  the  unnatural  relations  sought  to  be  established. 
Perhaps  if  the  Spaniards  had  themselves  understood  this, 
they  might  have  wielded  the  natives  against  the  patriots  ; 
but,  to  the  Indian  mind,  the  Spanish  government  embodied 
the  master-race ;  and  when  they  were  demoralized,  confused, 


THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS.  39 

and  bewildered  by  the  long  civil  war,  they  naturally  turned 
upon  the  Spanish  power,  and  sought  to  exterminate  it. 
With  this  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  dominion,  the  Church, 
generally,  accepted  the  "  situation,"  and  still  retained  its 
prestige  over  the  native  Indian  population.  There  was 
little  political  knowledge  anywhere.  The  Creole  whites 
desired  to  cast  off  the  rule  of  the  Spaniards,  but  beyond  that, 
had,  probably,  but  imperfect  notions  of  republicanism,  or 
liberty  of  any  kind. 

There  was  great  rejoicing,  and  at  the  same  time,  great  trib- 
ulation. The  men  of  wealth  and  position  surrounded  Bolivar, 
and  desired  to  make  him  Dictator  in  the  south ;  while  Iturbide, 
himself  a  Spanish  general  (though  a  native),  and  at  the  head 
of  a  Spanish  army,  had  gone  over  to  the  Patriots  in  Mexico, 
and  closed  the  war,  and  thus  could  make  himself  Dictator  or 
Emperor,  as  he  pleased. 

But  there  was  the  grand  American  example  of  the  United 
States  standing  always  before  them;  and,  after  such  a  long  and 
terrible  struggle  to  cast  off  a  foreign  monarchy,  the  great 
majority  demanded  republicanism.  Nevertheless,  Iturbide, 
calling  together  a  congress,  or  junta,  of  notables,  was  de- 
clared Emperor  of  Mexico,  and  the  Imperial  succession  made 
hereditary  in  his  family.  His  power  lasted  only  two  years. 
The  army,  as  well  as  the  citizens,  were  against  him,  expelled 
him,  and  a  National  Congress  met  soon  after,  and  taking  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  their  model,  established 
the  "Republic  of  the  United  States  of  Mexico,"  in  1824.  At 
this  time,  1824,  Mexico  equaled,  and,  in  many  respects,  largely 
surpassed,  the  United  States  in  the  elements  of  national 
greatness  and  prosperity. 

Bounded  by  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  with  a  ter- 
ritory stretching  from  the  Sabine  almost  to  the  Equator,  with 


40  THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS. 

all  degrees  of  climate,  and  capacity  of  production  for  all  our 
northern  cereals  and  fruits,  as  well  as  for  cotton,  sugar,  coffee, 
and  tropical  fruits ;  with  a  soil,  though  barren  at  wide  inter- 
vals, so  overwhelmingly  fruitful  that  we  can  scarcely  realize 
it  without  seeing  it;  with  a  sea-coast,  on  the  Pacific,  of  nearly 
four  thousand  miles,  and  an  isthmus  between  the  oceans,  of 
less  than  two  hundred  miles,  right  on  a  direct  line  from  Europe, 
to  China  and  Japan ;  and  more  than  all  besides,  perhaps  includ- 
ing within  her  domain  more  gold  and  silver  than  all  the  rest  of 
the  world, — this  Mexican  republic  would  seem  to  have  been 
selected  by  Providence  for  some  great  and  glorious  destiny. 
/  It  was  an  almost  exact  counterpart  of  the  Republic  of  the 
KJTnited  States  of  America,  created  in  1787,  as  regards  out- 
ward forms  and  general  principles  ;  but,  while  the  former, 
excluding  Indians  and  negroes,  was  homogenous  —  the 
3Iexican  republic,  and  all  the  Spanish- American  republics, 
were  mongrel,  and  included  whites,  mestizos,  Indians,  and 
negroes,  in  a  common  citizenship. 

Some  forty  years  have  passed,  and  this  grand  republic  of 
the  "United  States  of  Mexico"  lies  before  us,  worse  than 
a  ghastly  ruin ;  it  is  a  dying  monster  in  the  last  stages  of 
its  abnormal  and  monstrous  existence.  The  white  people 
have  diminished  to  half  of  their  original  numbers,  the  mes- 
tizos, doubtless,  still  more  rapidly ;  and  though  in  some 
districts,  the  Indian  population  have  held  their  own,  as  a 
whole,  they  too,  no  doubt,  have  declined  in  numbers  under 
the  republicA 

The  greafcities  of  Mexico,  Puebla,  Guadalaxara,  Quaretero, 
etc.,  have  lost  half  of  their  populations,  sometimes  more; 
thousands  of  expensively  built  houses  and  costly  churches 
are  homes  for  bats  and  owls ;  and,  indeed,  the  whole  outer  as- 
pect of  the  country  is  that  of  one  continuous  and  magnificent 
ruin.     The  Church  alone,  retaining  a  certain  prestige  over 


THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS.  41 

the  Indian  population,  has  preserved  some  of  the  elements  of 
civilization.  The  priests  are  white  men,  and  while  they  pre- 
serve, to  a  great  extent,  their  influence  over  the  Indians,  their 
great  wealth  in  the  cities  gave  them  a  certain  power  over 
the  mestizos,  and  thus  they  preserve  something  like  social 
order. 

But  it  is  impossible  for  those  who  have  not  witnessed  it  to 
understand  the  demoralization,  corruption,  and  degradation  of 
the  white  man,  when  he  enjoys  "  impartial  freedom  "  with  and 
courts  the  favor  of  subordinate  races ;  and,  however  abject 
and  miserable  the  mestizo  or  hybrid, — and  he  is  a  natural 
monstrosity, — the  white  man  who  courts  the  favor  of  the 
lower  races  is  a  social  monster,  that  beats  the  natural  one  out 
of  the  field. 

We  ourselves  are  now  witnessing  this  revolting  spectacle 
in  oar  midst,  where  white  men  are  striving  for  the  favors  of 
negroes  in  the  South ;  and  this  social  leprosy  has  tainted  a 
very  large  proportion  of  the  still  remaining  white  men  of 
Mexico. 

It  is  the  penalty  that  God  exacts  for  such  an  impious 
and  accursed  sin, — that  those  who  desecrate  their  high 
nature,  and  equalize  with  the  lower  races,  become  even  more, 
degraded,  sinful,  and  abject,  than  the  perverted  Indian  or 
negro,  whom  they  have  debauched  by  so-called  freedom ;  and 
the  white  men  of  Mexico  and  Spanish  America,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, are  tainted  with  this  terrible  leprosy. 

The  popular  notion  that  it  is  the  mixed  breeds  that  create 
the  confusion  in  Spanish  America,  is  both  true  and  false. 
They  are  the  material  that  are  generally  wielded  in  the  con- 
stantly occurring  revolutions ;  but  if  they  were  all  annihilated, 
the  general  result  would  be  the  same.  Indeed,  the  mixed 
breeds,  and  universal  intermarriage  all  round,  form  some* 
thing  like  social  order. 


42  THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS. 

But  they  are  rapidly  dying  out,  as  well  as  the  white  people; 
and  taking  the  same  ratio  of  decrease  that  has  gone  on  the 
la>t  forty  years,  one  hundred  years  hence  there  will  not  be 
one  single  white  man,  or  a  man  with  predominating  white 
blood,  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  Brazil. 

This  is  no  opinion  or  speculation  ;  it  is  an  inductive  fact,  an 
obvious  and  inevitable  necessity,  flowing  from  existing  facts. 
The  Church  may,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  save  that 
which  she  originally  accomplished,  that  is,  the  civilization  of 
tiiP  native  Indian  people;  but  under  the  existing  ignorance, 
prejudice,  and,  we  may  say,  absolute  lunacy  of  Christendom, 
on  this  subject  of  races,  it  is  difficult  to  conjecture  how  even 
the  Church  can  save  her  own  glorious  woi'k. 

On  the  contrary,  the  educated  people,  the  professedly  most 
enlightened  among  us,  actually  regard  the  Church  as  the 
stumbling-block  in  the  path  of  Mexican  progress,  and  rejoice 
to  hear  that  Juarez,  or  some  other  temporary  dictator,  has 
struck  deadly  blows  at  its  power  and  prestige.  Of  course, 
Maximilian,  or  monarchy,  was  as  impossible  in  Mexico  as 
republicanism.  Society,  properly  speaking,  does  not  exist, 
never  has  existed,  can  not  exist,  on  such  a  basis  as  mon- 
golism. 

UTad  the  white  men  of  Mexico  and  South  America  simply 
expelled  the  Spanish  power,  and  substituted  themselves  in  its 
stead,  leaving  the  Indian  and  negro  just  where  they  were 
xmder  the  Spanish  regime,  where  God  designed  them,  and 
their  nature  adapted  them,  the  republic  would  have  been  a 
magnificent  success. 

Mexico,  especially,  having  so  many  advantages,  had  the 
citizenship  been  purely  and  solely  white,  and  special  laws 
adapted  to  the  nature  and  wants  of  the  Indian  and  negro 
elements,  in  all  reasonable  probability  would  have  been  the 


THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS.  4S 

model  republic  of  our  times,  and  surpassed  even  lier  great 
rival  in  the  North. 

Ignorant  and  foolish  people  talk  of  Anglo-Saxons,  and 
fancy  these  Anglo-Saxons  greatly  superior  to  the  Spanish  or 
"Latin"  races;  but  this  is  all  fancy  work.  White  men  are 
white  men — Caucasians — the  master-race — the  only  race  or 
species  either  capable  of  a  progressive  civilization,  or  of 
having  a  history  ;sand  the  differences  we  witness  are  ficti- 
tious and  accidentally 

If,  therefore,  the  white  men  of  Mexico  had  organized  a 
homogenous  republic,  in  accord  with  the  laws  of  nature,  it  must 
have  been  a  grand  success  ;  but  as  they  sought  to  establish  a 
mongrel  republic,  in  conflict  with  the  laws  of  nature  and  the 
will  of  the  Creator,  it  was,  of  course,  a  failure  from  the  start, 
and  must  continue  so  to  the  end  ;  that  is,  until  the  white  and 
mongrel  blood  is  extinct,  and  the  Indian,  losing  all  taught  him 
by  the  white  man,  collapses  into  the  condition  in  which  he  was 
originally  found  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
This  final,  and,  indeed,  rapidly  approaching  Indian  supremacy 
is  the  end  then  of  all  Spanish  America  ;  it  being  merely  a  ques- 
tion of  time,  when  it  is  reached. 

What  is  to  be  the  future  of  American  civilization,  or  rather, 
that  of  these  States,  when  all  south  and  west  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  or,  at  most,  the  Sierra  Madre,  is  given  over  to  Indian- 
ism  ?  It  must  be  faced, — it  can  not  be  ignored  ;  nothing  else  is 
possible,  if  things  are  left  to  drift  in  the  present  channel. 

Fanciful  persons,  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  things  they 
speculate  on  so  confidently,  like  Du  Chaillu  and  others,  talk  of 
wild  races  of  men  destined  to  disappear,  as  if  the  Almighty 
Creator  had  made  things  so  loosely  and  carelessly,  that,  man 
or  chance  could  "  abolish "  His  work;  and  multitudes  of 
thoughtless  people,  because  the  Indian  "  dies  out,"  from  our. 


44  THE      MONGREL      REPUBLICS 

own  stupid  and  cruel  ignorance,  in  our  Western  territories, 
suppose  the  native  race  is  destined  to  become  extinct  every- 
where. 

The  Indian  or  aboriginal  of  this  continent  will  not  only 
remain  forever  where  the  Almighty  hand  placed  him,  but  he 
alone  is  the  proper  and  sole  industrial  force  of  the  vast  table- 
lands of  America.  The  Chinaman  or  Mongol  may  possibly 
become  a  productive  force  on  the  Pacific  slopes ;  but  neither  he 
nor  the  white  man  nor  the  negro  can  ever  become  the  perma- 
nent and  regular  laboring  force  of  Mexico  or  South  America. 
The  Indian  was  created  for  this  purpose  ;  this  is  his  centre 
of  existence ;  but  without  the  superintendence,  guidance,  and 
protection  of  the  white  man,  he  is  a  useless  barbarian. 

This  final  collapse  into  Indianism  or  savagery  is,  then,  in 
conclusion,  the  only  possible  end,  if  Christendom  stands 
aloof;  and  that  will  probably  be  reached  within  a  century, 
and  not  a  single  white  man  left  in  those  vast  regions,  once  the 
centre  of  a  mighty  Christian  civilization;  which,  beginning  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  culminated  with  the  destruction  of  the 
Spanish  dominion,  and  the  establishment  of  mongrel  republics, 
with  their  consequent  rapid  decline  and  inevitable  death. 
This  decline,  rottenness,  and  death  of  the  Spanish  civiliza- 
tion do  not  result  from  the  vast  hybrid  populations,  but 
simply  from  political  mongrelism, — or  a  common  citizenship 
of  whites,  Indians,  and  negroes ;  that  impious  and  monstrous 
crime  against  nature,  which  strives  to  secure  "  impartial  free- 
dom "  for  widely  different  races  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE     ISLANDS,    PAST     AND     PRESENT. 

The  west  India  Islands,  first  discovered  by  the  Spaniards, 
then  conquered  by  France  or  England  from  Spain,  or  made 
the  subjects  of  diplomatic  transfer  to  European  powers, — are 
nestled  in  the  bosom  of  the  continent,  and  though,  not  long 
since,  save  perhaps  the  silver  mines  of  Mexico,  were  the  most 
important  portions  of  the  new  world,  they  are  now,  except 
Cuba,  an  almost  absolute  loss  to  the  civilization  of  our  times. 

As  we  have  seen,  in  the  history  of  the  main-land,  that 
the  Spanish  civilization  culminated  with  the  overthrow  of  the 
Spanish  dominion,  and  the  consequent  rapid  decline  of  mon- 
grel republicanism  ;  so  too,  the  history  of  these  islands  is 
necessarily  divided  into  their  normal  and  abnormal  condi- 
tions ;  or,  in  other  words,  into  the  natural  and  legitimate  rule  of 
the  master-race,  and  the  abolition  of  that  rule  and  consequent 
ruin  of  these  fertile  and  beautiful  islands. 

The  Moors  that  conquered  Spain  were  accompanied  by 
negro  domestics,  and  a  very  considerable  number  of  these 
child-people  were  left  in  Moorish  families  after  the  general  ex- 
pulsion under  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

Common  sense  and  the  nature  of  things  always  govern 
our  actions,  unless  there  is  some  great  accidental  or  selfish 
influence   brought    to    bear   to   prevent   or    overrule   them. 


46  THE     ISLANDS,     PAST     AND     PEES  EN  I. 

Thus,  in  the  thousands  of  years  that  the  white  man  was  in 
juxtaposition  with  negroes, — the  Hebrews,  Romans,  Saracens, 
etc., — no  such  stupid  notion  as  "  free"  negroism  ever  existed ; 
and  all  through  the  Bible,  and  Roman  and  Arabian  history, 
no  trace  of  any  such  monstrosity  as  a  "  free "  negro  can  be 
found.  They  were  widely  different  and  subordinate  beings,  and 
common  sense  and  the  nature  of  things  taught  all  to  regard 
and  treat  them  as  God  had  made  them,  and  adapted  them — ■ 
servants,  domestics,  minors  in  fact. 

When,  therefore,  Columbus  and  his  followers  landed  in 
Hispanolia,  or  the  present  Hayti,  they  were  accompanied  by 
some  of  their  negroes,  who,  instead  of  dying  of  fever,  like  the 
Spaniards,  were  seen  to  be  more  vigorous,  contented,  and 
happy  under  the  burning  suns  of  the  tropics  than  they  were  in 
Spain.  This  impressive  fact  taught  the  Spanish  adventurers 
the  immense  advantage  of  African  labor  over  that  of  the  feeble 
and  decaying  native  islanders. 

Las  Casas  aud  other  friends  of  the  natives  readily  assented 
to  the  introduction  of  African  negroes ;  but  it  was  a  great  in- 
dustrial necessity,  rather  than  any  sentimental  feeling  for  the 
native,  that  promoted  the  importation  of  those  whom  God  has 
specifically  adapted  to  tropical  production,  that  originally 
brought  the  negro  to  the  new  world. 

The  King  of  Spain  was  applied  to  for  his  permission,  and  the 
importation  of  African  laborers  began — carefully  and  kindly 
guarded ;  and  compared  with  which,  our  present  importation 
of  our  own  wronged  and  outraged  kind  from  the  old  world  is 
cruel  and  inhuman.  Years  after,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
'Hutch  and  English;  and  the  "African  trade"  becoming  a 
mere  matter  of  merchandise,  enriched  not  only  Queen  Eliza- 
beth and  her  partner,  Sir  John  Hawkins,  but  was  a  source  of 
great  profit  for  several  generations  to  the  mercantile  oligarch v ; 


THE     ISLANDS,      PAST     AND     PRESENT.  47 

and  indeed  some  of  the  largest  fortunes  in  England  at  this 
day  had  their  foundations  laid  in  the  so-called  "  slave-trade." 
The  islands  of  San  Domingo,  Jamaica,  Cuba,  Trinidad, — 
indeed  the  whole  West  Indian  group  of  islands, — were  soon 
supplied  with  African  laborers.  Plantations  were  opened,  roads 
constructed,  bridges  built,  and  great  and  flourishing  towns 
grew  up  all  over  these  islands. 

The  almost  constant  wars  going  on  between  European 
powers,  and  especially  English  piracy,  thinly  disguised  under 
the  mask  of  mercantile  enterprise,  did,  it  is  true,  greatly  inter- 
fere with  industry  and  production  in  these  islands  ;  but  their 
great  fertility,  and  the  European  demand  for  their  products, 
overcame  all  these  embarrassments,  and  a  wonderful  pros- 
perity prevailed  for  more  than  two  centuries. 

Port-au-Prince,  Kingston,  Santiago,  and  other  principal 
ports,  became  the  great  centres  of  modern  commerce ;  and 
when  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  other  cities  of 
the  British  provinces  in  the  North  were  almost  unknown  to 
the  commercial  world,  the  former  were  overflowing  with 
wealth  and  magnificence. 

Indeed  and  in  fact,  what  we  call  commerce  in  our  times  had 
its  origin  wholly  in  that  tropical  production  which  followed 
the  introduction  of  African  labor  in  the  new  world.  The 
popular  notion  of  the  East  Indian  trade,  of  great  commercial 
cities,  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  indeed  of  Venice  and  Genoa 
of  medieval  times,  is  founded  on  a  mistake. 

In  those  times,  commerce  was  confined  to  diamonds  and 
precious  stones,  with  a  few  fine  silks,  linens,  and  rich  essences 
used  by  kings  and  nobles,  with  little  or  no  resemblance  to 
what  we  call  commerce  now,  of  which  the  tropical  products 
of  cotton,  sugar,  coffee,  indigo,  etc.,  with  innumerable  ships  and 
vast  multitudes  of  employed  people,  form  the  material. 


48  THE     ISLANDS,      PAST      AND     PRESENT. 

There  is  probably  more  commerce  in  one  week,  in  New 
York,  or  other  great  commercial  centres  of  modern  times, 
than  medieval  Venice  or  Genoa  saw  in  a  century  ;  and  that 
supposed  Indian  trade,  that  some  have  fancied,  was  less  im- 
posing than  that  of  the  Jew  peddlers  of  this  day.  Commerce 
proper  was,  in  fact,  unknown  before  the  discovery  of  America 
and  the  introduction  of  negro  labor  in  the  great  tropical  centre 
of  our  continent. 

The  opening  of  the  mines,  and  product  of  the  precious 
metals  on  the  main  land ;  the  introduction  of  negro  laborers 
in  the  islands  ;  the  supplies  needed  for  Europe;  and  above  all, 
the  exchange  of  the  product  of  their  labor, — developed  a  com- 
merce that  built  up  great  cities  ;  called  into  existence  a  vast 
commercial  marine,  hitherto  unknown  ;  and,  while  giving  em- 
ployment to  vast  numbers  of  people,  it  rapidly  modified  all  the 
features  of  our  modern  civilization. 

It  is  true,  this  grand  commerce  has  disappeared  from  the 
great  tropical  centre  of  our  continent ;  but  England  has  only 
transferred  her  j)ortion  of  it  to  the  East  Indies,  and  the 
wonderful  increase  of  the  negro  population,  and  the  equally 
wonderful  development  of  the  cotton  production  in  the  tropi- 
coid  districts  of  our  own  country,  have  preserved  it  to  the 
civilization  of  our  times. 

All  the  islands  were  full  of  life,  action,  progress;  and  when 
"New  York,  Boston,  etc.,  were  unknown  to  commercial 
Europe,  Vera  Cruz,  Kingston,  Port-au-Prince,  and  other  ports 
in  the  West  India  Islands,  were  the  very  centres  of  trade  and 
commercial  activity. 

There  was  one  feature  of  the  "  African  trade,"  however, 
that  was  wrong,  exceedingly  so ;  and  its  consequences  were 
deeply  demoralizing  to  these  islands.  It  was  right,  of 
course,  to  bring  the  negro  from  Africa ;  for,  otherwise,  a  vast 
proportion  of  the  most  fertile  and  genial  portion  of  America 


THE     ISLANDS,    PAST     AND     PRESENT.  40 

must  needs  be  a  desert  waste,  prowled  over  by  wild  animals. 
The  imported  Africans  were  always  better  treated  on  the  pas- 
sage than  are  our  own  hapless  brothers  and  sisters,  that  escape 
from  European  oppression,  and  seek  new  homes  in  America. 
The  horrible  cruelties  of  the  "  African  slave-trade,"  that  have 
been  dinned  into  the  ears  of  the  world  so  long,  so  loudly  and 
persistently,  were  the  result  of  abolition  interference  with 
that  trade ;  and  prior  to  such  interference,  it  is  repeated,  the 
negroes  were  treated  better,  on  the  passage  from  Africa,  than 
Germans  and  Irishmen  are  in  these  days. 

Common  sense  says  this  to  every  cool  and  thoughtful  mind : 
the  coarse  and  brutal  master  of  a  ship,  whose  property  interests 
are  all  wrapped  up  with  the  lives  of  his  passengers,  would,  of 
course,  look  out  for  their  health  and  well-being ;  while  the 
man  whose  highest  interest  it  is  to  starve  and  neglect  those 
who  had  paid  him  for  their  passage  would  be  apt  to  do  so. — 
Indeed,  self-interest  impelled  the  utmost  care  of  the  negro, 
and  the  utmost  cruelty  to  the  Irish  or  German  emigrant ;  for, 
while  the  former  was  rewarded  by  the  highest  possible  price 
on  landing,  if  the  latter  died  on  the  passage,  it  was  a  certain 
amount  saved  out  of  the  expense  of  transporting  him  to 
America. 

But,  as  observed,  there  was  an  unnatural  and  sinful  feature 
of  the  "African  trade."  Adult  men  paid  better,  and  after  this 
trade  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  they  mainly  introduced 
males  only.  This  was  a  great  wrong — indeed,  a  monstrous 
crime  against  nature  and  the  will  of  the  Creator.  The  sexual 
relations  of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child,  were  thus 
denied  to  these  people,  to  a  great  extent,  and  it  rendered 
them  sullen  and  unhappy,  and,  indeed,  less  available  as  laborers. 
Unlike  the  happy,  healthy,  and  contented  negroes  in  our  own 
States,  they  were  denied  the  great  natural  right  to  fulfill  the 
primal  command  to  "  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth ;"  and 


50  THE    ISLANDS,    PAST     AND     PRESENT. 

the  planters,  instead  of  depending  on  the  natural  increase  of 
their  negro  people,  relied  on  the  "African  trade"  to  supply  the 
vacancy  in  the  labor  market. 

It  was  a  monstrous  outrage,  and  aside  from  its  positive  effect, 
in  rendering  the  negro  less  useful  as  a  laborer,  it  shut  out  all 
those  family  influences  and  indeed  affectionate  associations, 
which,  as  we  have  seen  among  the  planters  of  the  South,  grew 
up  between  the  planters'  families  and  their  servants,  which 
rendered  a  Southern  household  so  attractive  to  all  thoughtful 
and  candid  minds. 

But  notwithstanding  this  demoralizing  practice  of  introduc- 
ing mainly  adult  males,  and  the  almost  constant  European  wars 
that  subjected  their  West  Indian  dependencies  to  the  chances 
of  invasion,  plunder,  and  desolation,  one  hundred  years  ago 
all  these  islands  were  full  of  life,  progress,  and  prosperity. 
San  Domingo  or  Hayti,  naturally  the  most  fertile  and  prosper- 
ous, furnished  all  the  sugar  consumed  in  France,  while  her 
coffee  plantations  supplied  the  continent  with  the  choicest  cof- 
fee, and  her  indigo  crop  was  relied  on  by  the  whole  world  for 
that  special  article. 

In  short,  these  islands,  and  this  negro  labor,  directed  and 
controlled  by  the  brain  of  the  white  man,  furnished  nearly  all 
the  materials  of  modern  commerce,  and  without  which  the 
new  world,  or  the  most  fertile  portion  of  it,  that  which  a 
beneficent  Creator  has  endowed  with  indigenous  products 
essential  to  human  happiness,  would  have  remained  a  barren 
waste. 

But  a  sinister  and  fiital  enterprise  was  now  about  to  begin, 
which,  under  the  mask  or  in  the  name  of  religion  and  philan- 
thropy, has  worked  out  results  so  horrible,  as  well  as  ruinous, 
that,  in  comparison,  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  white 
people  of  these  fertile  and  beautiful  islands  to  have  been  at 
once  engulfed  in  the  ocean  surrounding  them. 


THE     ISLANDS,    PAST     AND    PRESENT.  6] 

The  British  colonies  in  the  North  had  cast  off  the  British 
dominion,  and  established  independent  States,  instead  of  de- 
pendent provinces,  and  for  the  first  time  the  old  world  and 
the  new  were  brought  face  to  face  in  an  "irrepressible  conflict," 
that,  openly  or  secretly,  has  gone  on  ever  since,  and  that  must 
go  on  until  one  or  the  other  is  conquered,  and  our  modern 
civilization  is  a  unit. 

In  other  times,  Asia  might  borrow  from  Africa,  or  Europe 
overrun  Asia,  and  then  each  settle  down  into  a  certain  inde- 
pendence of  each  other;  but  in  our  times,  with  steamboats 
and  railroads  and  telegraphs,  and,  above  all,  the  printing  press, 
civilization  tends  to  unity,  and  especially  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica ;  and  therefore,  with  their  politics  and  institutions  so 
radically  opposed,  there  must  be  conflict  until  one  or  the  other 
is  overthrown. 

Prior  to  1776  there  was  peace,  if  not  harmony,  between  the 
old  world  and  the  newr,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if  we  had 
remained  subject  to  the  British  dominion,  the  world  would 
never  have  heard  of  the  great  "  anti-slavery  enterprise,"  nor  at 
this  moment  would  there  have  been  such  a  social  monstrosity 
as  a  free  negro  in  all  America. 

But  with  the  establishment  of  American  independence,  hos- 
tile systems  came  into  conflict ;  and  however  unknown  to  them 
selves,  the  aristocrats  of  Europe  were  forced  into  a  so-called 
"  anti-slavery"  policy,  in  very  self-defense  against  the  dreaded 
march  of  democracy.  Their  system  co?isists  of  unnatural 
distinctions  of  Icings,  lords,  and  commons,  in  our  own  race  / 
while  ours,  based  on  the  natural  distinctions  that  separate 
races,  demands  equality  of  rights  for  lohite  men;  and  there- 
fore, Pitt  and  Wilberforce  began  their  warfare  on  the  latter 
to  save  the  former. 

Fortunately,  too,  for  the  English  oligarchy,  Clive  had  just 
conquered  India;  and,  therefore,  with  tropical  A.sia  in  their 


52  THE     ISLANDS,    PAST     AND     PRESENT. 

possession,  and  a  hundred  millions  of  Mongols  to  labor  for  them, 
they  could  not  only  afford  to  consult  their  political  interests, 
but  it  actually  became  a  commercial  speculation  to  ruin  their 
own  West  India  Islands.  England  desired  to  preserve  her 
commercial  supremacy,  only  possible,  of  course,  by  a  monopoly 
of  tropical  productions;  and  if,  in  possession  of  tropical  Asia, 
and  countless  millions  of  Mongols,  she  could  annihilate  tropical 
production  in  America,  of  course  the  ruin  of  a  few  islands 
in  the  Caribbean  Sea  was  actually  desirable,  especially  when 
such  stupendous  political  interests  were  combined  with  the 
grandeur  of  her  commercial  projects.  She  had  only  to  destroy 
the  negro  labor  of  Amelia,  to  monopolize  tropical  production 
and  modern  commerce  ;  and  even  if  she  failed  to  delude  us,  and 
ruin  our  democratic  institutions,  she  could  transform  the  great 
tropical  centre  of  our  continent  into  an  African  heathenism, 
"which  would  present  an  immovable  barrier  against  a  further 
march  of  American  democracy. 

Masking  all  this  under  the  guise  of  religion  and  philanthropy, 
and  taking  advantage  of  the  European  ignorance  and  miscon- 
ception of  the  negro,  the  moustrous  conflict  against  American 
civilization  began  by  demanding  that  the  French  Convention 
should  apply  its  principles  to  San  Domingo,  then  the  most 
productive  and  nourishing  island  of  the  whole  West  Indian 
group. 

The  negro  is  as  incapable  of  insurrection  against  the  rule  of 
the  white  man  as  the  child  is  against  that  of  the  adult ;  but 
when  the  latter  abdicates  his  natural  mastership,  guidance,  and 
protection  of  this  subordinate  negro,  then  he  instinctively 
strives  to  exterminate  him. 

This  followed  in  San  Domingo  ;  every  single  white  man, 
woman,  and  child  was  massacred  or  driven  from  the  island, 
and — a  terrible  lesson,  yet  to  be  learned  by  some  of  our  own 
people — those  who  treated  their  negroes  best,  and  sought  to 


THE     ISLANDS,    PAST     AND     PRESENT.  53 

conciliate  them,  were  the  earliest  and  most  certain  victims  of 
that  bloody  and  remorseless  spirit  of  extermination  that  is 
always  called  into  action  when  the  white  man  abdicates  his 
natural  rule  over  these  people. 

After  the  whites  were  massacred,  the  mulattoes  and  negroes 
came  into  collision,  and  the  former  were  driven  into  the  eastern 
portion  of  the  island.  The  negroes  are  now  in  undisturbed 
possession.  With  some  white  blood  on  the  coast,  and  in  the 
towns,  mixed  with  the  negro,  there  is  yet  some  approach  to 
the  forms  of  civilization ;  but  in  the  interior,  they  have  returned 
to  their  African  habitudes  of  obeism  and  snake  worship  ;  and 
a  few  years  hence,  when  the  slight  infusion  of  Caucasian  blood 
is  extinct,  they  will  differ  in  no  respect  whatever  from  those 
African  populations  that  the  Livingstones,  Barths,  and  others 
have  been  so  deeply  interested  in. 

Production  proper  has  ceased  absolutely  and  entirely,  and 
an  island  that,  under  the  care  aud  guidance  of  the  white  man, 
furnished  France  with  sugar  and  coffee,  and  the  whole  world 
with  indigo,  now  does  not  export  a  single  pound  of  either. 
The  frightful  massacres  that  attended  the  abolition  of  white 
supremacy  in  San  Domingo  taught  European  governments  one 
lesson,  at  all  events,  that  they  could  not  abolish  the  natural 
control  of  the  white  people  over  the  negroes,  without  pi'otec- 
tion  against  the  ferocious  and  brutal  spirit  of  extermination  so 
hideously  displayed  in  San  Domingo.  Garrisons  were  there- 
fore provided  in  all  the  other  islands ;  and  save  that  of 
Jamaica  a  few  years  since,  there  have  been  no  serious  or 
extended  conflicts.  But  the  white  rapidly,  and  even  the  negro 
slowly,  perishes,  and  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  the 
former  becomes  extinct. 

Some  of  the  smaller  islands,  under  severe  vagrant  laws,  have 
been  to  some  extent  successful,  it  is  said  ;  but  whatever  the 
extent  of  production,  it  is  mainly  from  the  introduction  of 


54  THE     ISLANDS,    PAST    AND     PRESENT. 

coolies — a  crime  against  these  poor  creatures,  and  a  sin  again  si 
God,  compared  with  which  even  the  horrors  of  the  "  slave- 
trade,"  through  abolition  interference,  were  insignificant. 

The  negro  brought  from  Africa  was  still  in  his  own  centre 
of  existence ;  but  the  coolie,  without  the  protection  of  owning 
his  services,  without  wife  or  children,  or  hope  of  them, — 
indeed,  with  every  possible  motive  to  work  him  to  death, — was 
brought  into  a  centre  of  existence  where,  even  with  the  utmost 
care  and  kindness,  and  wife  and  children  to  boot,  he  can  not 
become  a  permanent  population. 

But  ignorant  of  all  this,  with  their  lands  lying  idle,  their 
plantations  going  to  waste,  with  nothing  but  the  idle  and 
useless  negro,  only  working  when  the  pressure  of  necessity 
prompts  him,  it  was  very  natural  that  the  despairing  planters 
of  the  West  India  Islands  should  strive  to  bring  in  coolies  from 
Asia,  if  permitted  to  do  so  even  temporarily. 

The  end  of  this  policy,  impiety,  fraud,  hypocrisy,  ignorance, 
and  lunacy,  is  obvious  and  inevitable.  The  rapid  decay  of  the 
white  and  mongrel  elements  must,  within  a  few  brief  years, 
place  all  these  islands  alongside  of  Hayti,  and  the  great  tropical 
centre  of  our  continent  must  become  a  second  Africa,  a  huge 
heathenism,  differing  in  no  degree  whatever  from  that  which, 
for  thousands  of  years,  and,  indeed,  from  the  starting-point  of 
authentic  history,  has  marked  the  condition  of  the  isolated 
negro. 

But  such  stupid,  foolish,  fathomless,  and  limitless  lies  have 
been  invented — such  incongruous,  impossible,  and  shameless 
falsehoods  concocted  and  imposed  on  the  world — indeed, 
such  stultified  and  well-meaning  self-deception,  as  well  as 
designed  and  deliberate  fraud,  have  deluded  the  reason  and 
perverted  the  moral  sense  of  mankind  on  this  subject,  that 
even  now,  with  all  these  islands  rapidly  drifting  to  African- 
ism,  there    aro   travelers,  and  writers  of   books,   who  give 


THE     ISLANDS,    PAST    AND    PRESENT.  55 

plausible  pictures  of  the  success  of  abolition,  and,  indeed,  who 
parade  statistics,  and  prove  the  prosperous  condition  of  some, 
and  explain  satisfactorily  why  " freedom"  has  failed  in  other 
islands  !  Of  course  they  take  the  French  islands,  or  the  remote 
ones,  those  the  people  know  least  of,  and  where  their  prepos- 
terous tales  can  not  be  tested  or  exploded. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  detail  to  demonstrate  the  total 
and,  indeed,  unavoidably  necessary  ruin  of  civilization  in  the 
fertile  and  beautiful  islands  which  a  beneficent  Providence  has 
designed  for  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  His  creatures,  but 
which  a  mad  and  monstrous  impiety  has  doomed  to  a  rapidly 
approaching  death  and  desolation. 

It  will  suffice,  in  conclusion,  to  briefly  present  the  three  most 
important  islands,  and  best  known  to  us, — Cuba,  Jamaica,  and 
Hayti, — right  here  before  us,  that  illustrate  perfectly  the  past, 
present,  and  future  of  the  entire  group,  and,  indeed,  all  tropical 
America. 

Cuba  is  now  just  where  all  the  islands  were  before  the  mon- 
strous abolition  policy  began.  The  condition  of  the  negro  is 
greatly  inferior  to  the  condition  of  this  element  in  Virginia, 
etc. ;  indeed,  relatively  considered,  the  condition  of  the  negro 
in  Virginia  was  as  far  superior  to  that  of  the  negro  in  Cuba,  as 
that  of  the  citizenship  of  the  former  was  superior  to  that  of  the 
white  subjects  of  the  latter,  or  as  democracy  is  superior  to 
monarchy.  Nevertheless,  Cuba  is  at  this  moment  overflowing 
with  life,  industry,  and  progress,  supplying  nearly  all  the  sugar 
we  ourselves  consume,  and  Havana  is  the  centre  of  a  magnifi- 
cent commerce. 

Jamaica,  on  the  contrary,  with  its  white  population  of  twenty- 
seven  thousand  when  abolition  took  place,  reduced  to  thirteen 
thousand,  and  its  dilapidated  and  decaying  towns,  is  rapidly 
drifting  to  the  condition  of  Hayti.  If  the  British  government 
were  to  withdraw  its  troops,  the  whites  would  be  massacred 


5G  THE     ISLANDS,     PAST     AND     PRESENT. 

or  driven  from  the  island  within  the  next  ninety  days ;  and 
otherwise,  the  same  ratio  of  decline  as  for  the  last  forty  years 
must  soon  give  the  island  over  to  the  negroes,  and  consequent 
heathenism.  Indeed,  it  were  better — certainly  better  for  the 
negroes — to  be  relieved  from  the  temporary  burthen  of  mon- 
grelism  now  imposed  on  them ;  and  their  revolt  a  few  years 
since  was  a  natural  and  instinctive  movement  to  slough  it  off. 
Isolated  and  left  to  their  natural  aptitudes,  they  live  and  slowly 
multiply,  but  burthened  with  the  presence  (.f  mongrels  and 
whites,  who  abdicate  their  natural  duties  of  rule  and  guidance 
over  these  people,  they  also  decline  in  population. 

But,  in  any  event,  the  presence  of  the  white  man  is  brief  and 
limited  in  Jamaica,  etc.,  and  with  his  extinction,  the  negro 
relapses  or  returns  to  his  original  Africanism,  already  reached 
in  the  interior  of  Hayti ;  and  a  few  years  hence,  certainly  within 
the  next  fifty  years,  save  Cuba,  the  whole  great  tropical  centre 
of  our  continent  must  needs  become  a  huge  African  heathenism, 
and  as  utterly  lost  to  America  as  if  engulfed  in  the  Atlantio 
Ocean. 


CHAP  TER     V. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  facts — the  palpable,  material  facts — that  now  confront 
us  south  of  our  own  borders  on  this  continent,  necessarily 
involve  the  inference  or  inductive  fact  that  within  a  certain 
period,  certainly  less  than  a  century,  the  white  blood  will  be 
extinct,  and  the  native  Indian  population  must  then  collapse 
into  the  same  useless  savages  they  were  found  by  the  Spanish 
adventurers  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  actual,  existing,  palpable  facts  that  confront  us  in  the 
islands,  save  Cuba,  necessarily  involve  the  conclusion  that  the 
white  blood  must  be  extinct  within  a  given  period,  probably 
within  the  next  fifty  years ;  and  then  the  negro,  left  to  his 
own  natural  aptitudes,  will  be  again  a  snake-worshiper  and 
obi  man;  but  he  will  then  recover  his  vitality,  and,  as  in  Africa, 
multiply  himself. 

What  is  to  be  the  future  civilization  of  America,  thus 
penned  up  by  a  vast  Iudianism  on  the  main-land,  and  the 
great  tropical  centre  of  the  new  world  transformed  into  a  huge 
Africanism  ? 

There  is  no  speculation  or  supposition,  or  room  for  suppo- 
sition in  this  matter ;  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  fiict  and  inductive 
fact — of  things  and  the  nature  of  things — of  existing  circum- 
stances and  of  unavoidable  necessities — in  short,  it  is  cause  and 
effect,  and  as  inexorably  linked  together  as  disease  and  death, 
Mongrel  ism  must  die  out,  and  the  Indian  and  negro  south  of 


58  CONCLUSION. 

us  (save  Cuba)  must  collapse  into  their  original  Indianisrn  and 
Africanism,  and  the  continent  and  islands  south  of  our  own 
borders  be  as  utterly  lost  to  American  civilization  as  if  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  oceans  that  surround  them. 

Nor  is  there  doubt,  or  room  for  doubt,  in  regard  to  their 
condition  when  the  white  blood  is  extinct.  The  Indian  must 
be  just  what  he  was  before  the  Spanish  conquest,  and  the 
negro  must  be  exactly  what  he  is  now  in  Africa,  when  isolated 
and  left  to  his  own  guidance — a  simple,  useless  heathen,  with- 
out even  a  capacity  to  invent  an  alphabet,  just  as  he  has  been 
in  the  entire  past,  and  just  as  he  must  be  forever,  short  of  a 
re-creation  and  a  new  universe  altogether. 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  American  civilization 
is  to  be  dwarfed  and  permanently  overshadowed  by  this  gigan- 
tic heathenism,  filling  up  the  great  centre  of  the  continent,  and 
casting  its  portentous  shadows  over  the  fairest  portion  of  the 
new  world? 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  these  vast  regions,  which  a  benefi- 
cent Creator  has  endowed  with  such  wonderful  fertility,  and 
made  the  centre  of  life  to  products  so  e.-sential  to  human  wel- 
fare, are  to  be  abandoned  wastes,  and  lost  to  His  creatures  ? 

Is  it  to-  be  supposed  that  all  the  elements  of  that  mighty 
modern  commerce  which  first  sprung  up  in  the  new  world,  and 
have  so  modified  the  civilization  of  our  times,  are  to  be  lost  to 
us,  and  England,  the  author  of  all  this  gigantic  ruin,  through 
her  East  Indian  possessions,  is  to  eujoy  a  monopoly  of  tropical 
production,  and  with  it,  the  commerce  of  the  world? 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  laboring  and  producing  classes 
of  America — the  farmers  of  the  great  West,  and  the  toiling 
mechanics  of  the  great  cities — are  to  be  dependent  on  English 
merchants  for  sugar,  coffee,  cotton,  rice,  etc.,  or,  in  the  enhanced 
prices  of  these  great  staples  so  essential  to  their  happiness,  to 
go  without  them  altogether  ? 


CONCLUSION.  59 

Finally,  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  real  friends  of  humanity 
will  stand  stupidly  looking  on  while  the  subordinate  races  of 
this  continent  are  drifting  back  into  their  original  savagery, 
and  instead  of  civilized  and  useful  beings,  permit  obi-ism 
and  snake  worship  to  darken  the  great  tropical  centre  of 
America? 

No ;  a  million  times,  no  !  The  absolute  necessities  of  Ameri- 
can civilization,  the  imperative  laws  of  self-preservation,  the 
instincts  of  nature,  and  veritable  commands  of  God  Himself, 
ordain  that  we  shall  restore  industry  and  production  and  pros- 
perity to  these  fertile  and  beautiful  regions,  and  render  them 
available  for  the  well-being  of  God's  creatures. 

Again  the  white  supremacy  will  exist;  again  the  subordinate 
races  will  be  governed,  guided,  and  protected  by  those  on 
whom,  in  endowing  them  with  a  higher  nature,  God  nas 
imposed  this  duty  of  government.  Again  these  now  blighted 
regions  will  be  the  centre  of  a  mighty  production  and  a  vast 
commerce ;  and  indeed,  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  the 
Gulf  Coast  must  become  the  Mediterranean  of  the  new  world. 
On  the  same  line  of  latitude,  and  with  the  same  products  as 
the  old  world,  the  great  central  and  Western  States  of  the 
American  Union  have  little  to  exchange;  and  a  time  must 
come  when  American  manufactures  will  be  so  advanced  that 
commerce  with  Europe  must  be  of  small  concern. 

But  the  West  needs  the  cotton,  sugar,  coffee,  and  rice  of  the 
tropics,  and  the  latter  needs  the  beef  and  pork  and  breadstuffs 
of  the  former-  and  Nature  has  furnished  the  mighty  river  for 
the  exchange  of  these  products,  and  a  commerce  compared  with 
which  all  that  the  world  has  yet  seen,  or  that  a  thousand  Pacific 
railroads  could  do,  were  absolutely  insignificant. 

When  the  great  Mississippi  Valley — the  vast  region  from 
the  Alleghanies  to  the  foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains — is  ex- 
changing its  products  for  those  of  the  great  tropical  centres 


60  CONCLUSION. 

of  our  continent — when  farmers  on  the  head  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  toiling  multitudes  of  our  great  Northern 
cities  can  be  supplied  with  cotton  and  sugar  and  coffee  and  the 
rich  fruits  of  the  tropics,  at  merely  nominal  prices,  and  the 
poorest  laboring  man  enjoy  comforts  that  kings  and  nobles 
could  not  a  few  centuries  ago,  then,  it  is  repeated,  the  Gulf 
Coast,  the  centre  of  this  mighty  commerce,  must  needs  become 
the  centre  of  American  civilization,  and  just  what  a  beneficent 
Providence  designed  it  should  be,  when  endowing  those  beau- 
tiful regions  with  such  wonderful  fertility. 


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White  Men  Must  Kule  America! 


2W    YOBK    DAY-BOOK 

FOK.    1863. 

The  New  Yoek  Day-Book  is  a  straightforward,  Eadical  Democratic  paper, 
with,  a  larger  circulation  than  any  other  Democratic  .iournal  ever  published  on 
this  Continent,  and  it  enters  on  the  threshold  of  1863  more  prosperous  and 
more  hopeful  of    the    great   cause    it   upholds    than    ever   before.  Standing  on 

tha  foundation  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  "  all  (.white)  men  are  created 
c  rual,"  and  therefore  entitled  to  equal  rights,  it  is  opposed  to  ail  forms  and  degrees  of 
special  legislation  that  conflict  with  this  grand  central  truth  of  Democracy,  and  over 
all,  and  above  all,  does  it  combat  that  monstrous  treasi  n  to  American  liberty, 
which,  thrusting  the  negro  element  into  our  political  system,  must  of  necessity  wreck  the 
whole  mighty  fabric  left  us  by  our  fathers.  God  has  created  white  men  superior,  aud 
i  s  inferior,  and  tAere/ore  all  the  efforts  of  the  past  five  years  to  abolish  His  work, 

and  equa.ize  w:th  negroes — every  law  violated,  every  State  Constitution  overthrown, 
every  life  sacrificed,  and  every  dollar  expended,  are  necessarily  just  so  many  steps  to- 
wards national  suicide ;  and  the  simple  and  awful  problem  now  upon  us  is  just  thi  — 
we  recover  our  reason  and  retrace  our  Etep3,  or  march  on  to  Mongrelism,  social 
anar  :hy,  and  the  total  ruin  of  our  country  ? 

Tub  Dat-Book,  therefore,  demands  the  restoration  of  the  "Union  as  it  was," — a 
Vni  nvf  co-  :qual  States  up  m  the  while  basis— sta  the  only  hope,  and  the  only  means 
Bible  under  heaven  i  r  paving  the  grand  ideas  of  1776 — the  fundamental    principles  of 
n  L>erty— and  if  tlio  real  friends  of  frei  Lorn,  and  the  earnest  believers  in  that 
sacred  and  glorious  cause  in  which  the  men  of  the  Revolution  offered  up  their  lives,  will 
r  to  expose  the  ignorance,  delusion  and  treason  of  the  Mongrel  party,  it  will 
succeed,  and  the  white  Itepublic  of  Washington  be  restored  again  in  all  its  'original 
n  1  granduer. 
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OPINIONS  OF  THE  PEESS. 


The  New  Yoke  Day-Booe. — Perhaps  there  is  no  paper  in  the  country  that  has 
labored  so  hard  during  the  last  three  years  in  the  cause  of  truo  Democracy  as  The 
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Abolition  miscegen  crew  by  their  proper  names.  It  has  always  opposed  and  de- 
nounced the  outrageous  and  disgraceful  fusion  scheme  of  the  policy  men  the 
Democratic  party  is  unfortunately  cursed  with  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  and 
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The  New  Yoke  Day-Booe.  — This  sterling  publication  comes  to  us  regularly,  and 
has  come  to  be  regarded  by  us  as  a  desideratum  in  our  sanctum.  The  Editor,  Dr. 
Van  Evrio,  is  one  of  the  ablest  as  well  as  one  of  the  boldest  political  writers  of  whom 
wo  have  any  knowledge.  He  designates  things  by  their  right  names,  and  dares  to 
beard  the  lion  in  his  den.  When  wo  first  becamo  a  reader  of  Tee  Day-Booe,  years 
ago,  we  were  astonished  at  the  audacity  (as  we  then  viewed  tho  subject)  of  the  po- 
sitions assumed  hi  its  columns  on  tho  question  of  "slavery."  It  fearlessly  promul- 
gated the  doctrine  that  the  social  subordination,  miscalled  slavery,  of  the  negro  in 
America,  was  his  normal  condition,  a  position  in  society  exactly  suited  to  his  condi- 
tion, capacity  and  wants ;  that  hi3  relation  to  tho  white  or  superior  race  was  one  dic- 
tated and  shaped  by  Him  who  planned  our  being,  and  governs  the  destinies  of  na- 
tions in  accordance  with  the  enlightenment  thereof,  and  their  conformity  to  His 
laws  ;  and  that  to  interfere  with  this  relation  was  an  innovation  upon  His  wisdom, 
and  would  entail  untold  disaster  upon  both  races.  All  this  we  have  verified  during 
the  past  five  years.  Indeed,  the  present  editor  of  The  Day-"  ooe,  in  commenting 
upon  a  correspondence  written  by  oursclf  in  185G,  for  that  paper,  predicted  in  a 
supposed  contingency,  very  nearly  the  same  character  of  a  war,  together  with  its 
results,  as  has  disgraced  the  American  name  during  the  first  half  of  this  decade. 
The  Day-Booe  was,  of  course,  under  the  ban  during  the  war,  as  all  papers  and  all 
persons  were,  who  were  possessed  of  the  manhood  and  honesty  to  say  that  black 
was  not  white.  It  is  now,  however,  out  in  all  its  wonted  vigor,  pouring  huge  vol- 
leys of  reason  and  common  sense  into  tho  ranks  of  disunion  Abolitionism. — 
[Lafayette  (Oregon)  Couriei: 


THE    ONLY    DEMOCRATIC    MAGAZINE     PUBLISHED    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


Vol.  6. 


1868. 


THE    OLD    GUARD, 

$.  Monthly  Magazine, 

Devoted  to  Literature,  Science  and  Art,  and  the  Political  Principles  of  1776—1860. 


In  offering  to  the  pub'.ic  the  Prospectus  for  the  Sixth  Volume  of  The  Old  Guaed, 
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work  is  needed.  Besides  the  political  matter,  of  great  importance,  bearing  upon 
the  principles  of  the  approaching  Presidential  Campaign,  we  shall  publish  a 
scries  of  articles  from  the  pen  of  Dr*  Van  Evrie,  on  the  Paces  of  Lien,  which  will 
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ever  published  in  the  Italian  language,  covering  the  History  of  the  Fall  of  the 
Italian  States,  u:;d.  r  the  horrible  rule  of  Cffisar  Borgia,  Duke  of  Valentine,  writ- 
ten by  Monte  Veede,  which  will,  we  are  confident,  excel  in  popular  interest,  any 
novel  to  be  brought  before  the  American  public  during  the  year  18G8.  Besides  a 
thrilling  love-plot,  it  unvails  with  a  pen  of  fire,  the  terrible  arts  and  desperate 
deeds  which  tyranny  always  resorts  to  in  fastening  its  miseries  upon  mankind. 
This  great  novel  is  most  appropriately  brought  out  in  this  country  at  the  present 
time,  and  cannot  fail  to  make  a  profound  sensation.  Other  great  literary  novel- 
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THE  OLD  GUARD.  Vol.  1,  1863,  contains  meei  Portraits  of  Horatio  Sey- 
mour, Hon.  C.  L.  Vallandigliam,  Gov.  Parker,  of  New  Jersey,  Hon.  D.  W.Voor- 
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Among  the  valuable  articles  in  this  volume  is  one  entitled,  "  Civilization  in  the  Free  and 
Slave  States,"  giving  statistics  as  to  the  moral,  social  and  pecuniary  condition  oi  the  people 
of  each  section— a  startling  article  to  many  readers;  another,  entitled,  "Nullifiers  of  the 
North  ' '  giving  the  Personal  Liberty  Bills  of  each  Northern  State ;  in  another  article  the  Alien 
and  Sedition  Laws  are  given,  together  with  Acts  of  Virginia  in  relation  thereto.    "  A  History 
of  Northern  Disunion"  is  also  contained  in  this  volume;  also  the  Acts  of  the  Conventions 
of  New  York  and  Virginia  in  adopting  the  Federal  Constitution,  &c,  &C. 

TEE  OLD  GUARD.  Vol.  3,  1865,  contains  the  New  Novel  by  Dr.  T.Dunn 
English,  in  full,  entitled,  "The  Peer  and  the  J?£mter ;"  also,  Vamab>°- Polit- 
ical Articles.    Octavo,  572  pp.    Priao,  $3  CS. 

Among  the  important  articles  in  this  volume  we  may  mention  "The  Civilization  (  '  the 
Tropics,"  "Have  States  a  Eight  to  withdraw  from  the  Union?"  "Our  Colonial  and  State 
Unions,"  "The  American  Kaces,"  "History  of  the  Northern  War  of  Tariffs  on  the  South," 
"  White  Supremacy  and  Negro  Subordination,"  "  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,"  "  Sketch  of 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  Puritanism,"  "History  of  Old  Brown,"  by  President  Johnson  ; 
"The  Crimes  of  New  England,"  "  The  South  Poor  in  Cash,  the  North  Bankrupt  in  Honor," 
"  The  Crimes  of  Modern  "Philanthropy,"  "  The  Meaning  of  the  Phrase,  People  of  the  United 
States  "  "Singular  Kecords  of  the  French  Bastile,"  "  Aphorisms  on  Government  and  Liber- 
ty," "The  Author  of  the  Federalist  Copperheads,"  "  Spirit  erf  *>ee4om  in  the  English  Par- 
liament, from  ICil  to  179G,"  "Camp  Lee,  Kichnioiui."' 


THE  OLD  GUARD.  Vol.  4,  1866,  contains  Steel  Portraits  of  General  It.  E. 
Lee,  Stonewall  Jackson,  J.  E.  Johnston,  Beauregard,  Ewell,  Longstrcet, 
Wade  Hampton,  Polk,  Sterling  Price,  G.  W.  Smith.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  and  A.  P. 
Hill.    Octavo,  7G8  pp.    Price,  U  00. 

This  volume  also  contains,  besides  valuable  political  and  literary  articles,  the  popular 
story  of  "  Bertha  Seely,  the  Heroine  of  the  Old  Dominion,"  by  Professor  Peck,  of  Georgia, 
giving  the  inside  of  Virginia  lite  during  the  great  Civil  War. 

***  These  volumes  contain  discussions  on  all  the  prominent  topics  of  the  day. 
They  form  of  themselves  a  most  useful  and  valuable  Political  Libeaev,  which 
no  person  who  desires  to  be  posted,  or  to  have  a  magazine  of  facts,  with  which 
to  confound  his  political  opponent,  can  afford  to  be  without.  They  may  bo  said 
to  be  indispensable,  not  only  to  the  politician  and  political  student,  but  to  the 
Merchant,  Farmer,  Mechanic,  and  all  who  desire  to  be  politically  intelligent. 
Besides  political  reading,  however,  they  contain  a  vast  amount  of  literary  matter, 
gossip,  humor,  poetry,  satire,  &c,  &c. 

J9S-  Tho  entire  set  will  be  sent,  postage  paid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States, 
for  $11  00. 

VAN  EVRIE,  HORTON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

162  Nassau  Street,  New  York. 


ANTI-ABOLITION  TRACTS. 

For  twenty-five  or  thirty  yeurs  the  Abolitionists  have  deluged  the  country  with  innumera- 
ble books,  pamphlets  and  tracts,  inculcating  their  false  and  pernicious  doctrines.  Little  or 
nothing  has  ever  been  done  in  the  same  way  towards  counteracting  their  influence.  Thou- 
sands now  feel  that  such  publications  are  indispensably  necessary.  In  order  to  Bupply  what 
it  is  believed  is  a  wide-felt  want,  the  undersigned  have  determined  toissue  a  series  of  '•Anti- 
Abolition  Tracts,"  embracing  a  concise  discussion  of  current  political  issues,  in  such  a  cheap 
and  popular  form,  and  at  such  a  merely  nominal  price  for  large  quantities,  as  ought  to  secure 
for  them  a  very  extensive  circulation.  The  following  numbers  of  these  Tracts  have  been 
issued : 

No.  l.-ABOLITION  IS  NATIONAL  DEATH ;  or,  The  Attempt  to  Equal- 
ize Races,  the  Destruction  of  Society.    Pp.  32.    Price  10  Cents. 

The  object  of  this  Tract  is  to  show  to  the  deluded  victims  of  the  Abolition  theory,  that, 
could  it  be  reduced  to  practice,  it  must  result  in  social  disintegration  and  national  death. 


No.  2.— FREE  NEGROISM ;  or,  Results  of  Emancipation  in  the  North  and 
the  West  India  Islands;  with  Statistics  of  the  Decay  of  Commerce,  Idle- 
ness of  the  Negro,  his  Return  to  Savag-ism,  and  the  Effect  of  Emancipa- 
tion upon  the  Farming',  Mechanical  and  Laboring-  Classes.  Price  10  Cts. 
Pp.  62. 

This  is  a  brief  history  oftne  itesnlts  of  Emancipation,  showing  its  wretched  and  miserable 
failure,  and  that  Negro  Freedom  is  simply  a  tax  upon  White  Labor.  The  facts  in  relation  to 
the  real  condition  of  the  Freed  Negroes  in  Hayti,  Jamaica,  &c,  have  been  carefully  sup- 
pressed by  the  Abolition  papers,  but  they  ought  to  be  laid  before  the  public,  so  that  the  evils 
which  now  afflict  Mexico,  Hayti  and  all  countries  where  the  Negro-equalizing  doctrines  have 
been  tried,  may  be  known  and  understood. 


No.  3— THE  ABOLITION  CONSPIRACY ;  or,  a  Ten  Years'  Record  of  the 
"Republican"  Party.    Price  10  Cents.    Pp.  32. 

This  Tract  embraces  a  collection  of  extracts  from  the  speeches  and  writings  of  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Abraham  Lincoln,  William  H.  Seward,  S.  P.  Chase,  Horace 
Greeley,  John  P.  Hale,  and  many  others,  giving  the  origin  and  object  of  the  Kepublican 
Party  and  the  Helper  Programme,  with  the  sixty-eight  Congressional  endorsers,  i:c. 


No.  4.— THE  NEGRO'S  PLACE  IN  NATURE.  A  Paper  read  before  the 
London  Anthropological  Society.  By  Dr.  James  Hunt,  Fresident  of  the 
Society.    Octavo,  32  pp.    Price  10  Cents. 

This  is  a  scientific  exposition,  in  a  popular  form,  of  the  Negro's  position  in  the  scale  of 
creation,  without  any  reference  to  political  or  party  questions.  It  is  an  admirable  Tract  to 
place  in  the  hands  of  "  Republicans  "  to  start  them  on  the  way  "  to  get  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth." 

No.  5.-THE  SIX  SPECIES  OF  MEN.-With  Cuts  representing  the  Types  J 
of  the  Caucasian,  Mongol,  Malay,  American  Indian,  Esquimaux,  and  j 
Negro.    Octavo,  32  pp.    Price  10  Cents. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  important  Tracts  in  the  series,  as  it  presents,  in  iiopular  form,  the  I 

radical  and  organic  differences  between  the  several  races  or  species  of  men,  as  well  as  the 

fundamental  laws  which  govern  all  animate  creation.     Some  of  the  objections  to  the  doctrine 

of  distinct  species  of  men  are  also  noticed. 


***  These  Tracts  arc  sent,  postage  paid,  for  ten  cents  single  copies,  or  one  dollar  per 
dozen;  or  five  dollars  per  hundred,  by  express.  Democratic  Committees,  Associations, 
&c,  ordering  one  thousand  at  a  time,  will  be  furnished  them  at  exactly  cost  price. 

VAN  EV&IE,  HORTON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

162  Nassau  Street,  New  York. 

g^°  Agents  Wanted  to  seE  the  above,  and  all  our  Publications. 


